20 years ago, Fernando Alonso was engaged in a thrilling championship run-in with Kimi Raikkonen, and a young tyre engineer with a bright future was about to join Alonso’s Renault team.
Ayao Komatsu had got his F1 break working for BAR-Honda’s test team in a high-spending era where leading manufacturer-backed organisations had two windtunnels running continuously and fully manned test squads operating in parallel with the race team throughout the season. That involved him working with the likes of Jenson Button, Takuma Sato and test driver Anthony Davidson.
In 2005 BAR-Honda’s upwards trajectory was interrupted by a scandal involving a secondary fuel tank which caused the team to be disqualified from the San Marino Grand Prix and banned for two further races. At the end of the season Komatsu changed up, moving to Alonso’s Renault team and working with the newly crowned world champion himself.
