Preston promoted in Aguri reshuffle 22 Sep 2006
Mark Preston has been named Super Aguri’s new technical director as part of an internal restructuring of the team’s engineering staff. Preston, formerly chief technical officer, will take charge of design, research and development functions at Super Aguri’s UK factory, as well as continuing to attend races and tests.
In another key move, chief race engineer Graham Taylor has been promoted to the newly created position of sporting director, with overall responsibility for Super Aguri’s race and test team performance. Taylor will continue to oversee the Japanese-owned squad’s engineering department for the remainder of the 2006 season.
"I am glad that Aguri has been able to bring stability to the team and cement our future direction,” said Preston of the changes. “It is a credit to all who have worked so hard at Super Aguri F1 Team and delivered so much over this first year of racing. Through our constant improvement we have come from approximately 7 percent off the pace at our first Grand Prix in Bahrain and are now within 3 percent of the front runners at recent races, a huge effort in anyone’s books! These internal promotions reflect the commitment to further strengthening the team’s future.”
Further promotions include Ben Wood to the role of head of aerodynamics, Stephen Watt to head of electronics and Gerry Hughes to head of research and development. Hughes will also remain Takuma Sato’s race engineer.
