Now, here is a wild piece of corporate shuffling at the top of motorsport: as FormulaUno.it reports, Honda Racing Corporation has announced a major leadership shakeup. Koji Watanabe, the President and CEO who spent the last six years steering the Japanese giant's motorsport restructuring, is set to retire from his role effective January 1, 2027. Stepping in to take over the reins will be Keiichi Yasuda, the brand's current Executive Vice President and Representative Director.
This high-level handover arrives during a brutally difficult phase for the manufacturer's Formula 1 ambitions. Their exclusive partnership with Aston Martin for the upcoming regulatory era of power units is struggling to get off the ground. The power units supplied so far are weighed down by a persistent and heavy power deficit compared to the competition. Drivers from the Silverstone-based team have quantified this gap at up to two seconds on the fastest circuits.
I consider it my responsibility to inherit the solid foundations built by Watanabe and evolve them further, uniting the vectors of each team element toward the single goal of race victory
The situation in Sakura is undeniably complex because the development concessions allowed by the regulations to fix the first specification have already been completely burned through this year, yet the desired progress on the track has simply failed to materialize.
HRC has clarified that this rotation at the top is part of their classic periodic planning designed to reinforce the global managerial structure. Interestingly, unlike typical Japanese corporate practice which usually sets operational changes for April 1, Yasuda’s installation has been brought forward to January 1 to align seamlessly with motorsport season dynamics and allow the new leadership to hit the ground running.
Watanabe leaves behind a massive organizational legacy. Since taking over global communication and branding in 2020 and subsequently becoming HRC President in 2022, he successfully unified the company's historical motorcycle roots with four-wheel activities, absorbing operations like HPD in the USA and the newly established HRC UK, while officially sealing Honda's return to Formula 1.
Reflecting on his tenure, Watanabe shared: «It has been an honour to lead HRC together with extraordinary colleagues. In 2020 I started the project to integrate motorsport development within HRC, unifying auto and moto activities under a single roof. Since then we have approved the return to F1, expanded our global structure by reorganizing HPD in the United States into HRC US and founding HRC UK, working on brand building on a global scale. In the remaining three months of my mandate I will continue to give my all, aiming for victory until the end».
Stepping into this pressure cooker is Keiichi Yasuda, who brings a career spanning over thirty years inside the Honda group, having started back in 1990 within the human resources department. After building extensive international experience in the United States with Honda of America Mfg and serving as President and CEO of motorcycle sales subsidiaries Boon Siew Honda in Malaysia and Astra Honda Motor in Indonesia, Yasuda returned to the Tokyo headquarters in 2023 to direct the group's entire human resources restructuring plan before landing at HRC this past April.
Yasuda intends to immediately channel this heavy background in organizational processes and human resources toward the racing side, aiming to tighten the structure and hunt down lost competitiveness. «I consider it my responsibility to inherit the solid foundations built by Watanabe and evolve them further, uniting the vectors of each team element toward the single goal of race victory», Yasuda stated. «Leveraging my managerial experience leading foreign subsidiaries and my background in human resources, I will focus on investing in people and strengthening the organization. I will dedicate myself to building an HRC whose drive for challenges can resonate with the passion of our partners and fans».
The challenge awaiting Yasuda from 2027 onwards is immense. He inherits a technical division that urgently needs to right the ship on the Formula 1 test bench, where the pressure from partner Aston Martin and the necessity to redesign the power unit architecture will leave zero margin for error.
