Naoki Tokunaga (徳永直紀, born 1966) is the Japanese former technical director of Renault Sport F1.

Career

Tokunaga studied in Japan and graduated

Chuo University , commonly referred to as or , is a private research university in Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan. The university finds its roots in a school called Igirisu Hōritsu Gakkō (English Law School), which was founded in 1885, and became a university in 1 ...

. He was a motorsport engineer at

Nissan is a Japanese multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the ''Nissan'' and ''Infiniti'' brands, and formerly the ''Datsun'' brand, with in-house ...

. In 2000, he started working at Enstone as a vehicle dynamics engineer in the

Benetton Formula Benetton Formula Limited., commonly referred to simply as Benetton, was a Formula One constructor that participated from to . The team was owned by the Benetton family who run a worldwide chain of clothing stores. In 2000, the team was purcha ...

team. In 2002, he was promoted to the position of head of systems control. He designed the electronic systems that are used by the Renault F1 team. He worked in the

KERS A kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) is an automotive system for recovering a moving vehicle's kinetic energy under braking. The recovered energy is stored in a reservoir (for example a flywheel or high voltage batteries) for later use under ...

system development program. In 2010, he became deputy technical director at Lotus, but in 2012 he moved to Renault Sport F1, where he became technical director. He supervised the design and development of new V6 units for the 2014 season. He left Renault in July 2022. In April 2024, he revealed that he is serving as a senior strategic advisor to

Andretti Global Andretti Global is an American motorsports organization with teams competing in the IndyCar Series, Indy NXT, Formula E, and joint entries in IMSA and the Australian Supercars Championship. Starting in 2026, Andretti will also operate the Cad ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tokunaga, Naoki Formula One engineers Living people Year of birth missing (living people)