Honda appoint chief aerodynamicist.

The Honda Racing F1 team has confirmed that Mariano Alperin-Bruvera has been promoted to the position of chief aerodynamicist.

The decision comes as the Brackley based team prepare for the final commissioning of its new state of the art wind tunnel, with building work on the full scale tunnel nearly completed. As such Alperin-Bruvera will now lead the efforts of a 'significantly' expanded team of aerodynamicists, designers, technicians and model-makers, which work alongside a similar group at the Dome facility in Japan.

"Mariano Alperin-Bruvera has been part of this team since the beginning and a key player in its progress to date," explained Honda's technical director, Geoff Willis. "His new role will see him step up from head of one of our two aero development groups to a position of overall aerodynamic leadership. I have every confidence that in the position of chief aerodynamicist, Mariano will continue to play a pivotal role in our team's pursuit of its championship ambitions."

The Argentinian joined the team at its inception in 1998 as a senior aerodynamicist. Prior to that, he held aerodynamicist positions with AGS France, Lamborghini and Fondmetal. He then moved to the Durango F3000 team before returning to F1 for a four year spell with the former Minardi team.

Commenting on his new position, he said: "I'm very proud to be given this opportunity to lead what I believe to be one of the strongest and most talented aerodynamics teams in F1. Our new wind tunnel represents a new technological step in aerodynamic research and I'm confident that there are some very exciting times ahead of us."