Noritoshi Arai

Noritoshi Arai joined Toyota as a Chassis Design Engineer in 1979, and eight years later transferred to Brussels as Toyota expanded its European operations. A racing fan, while in Europe he went to Le Mans and Grands Prix as a spectator. In 1990, he returned to Japan to join the Motor Sport Division in Higashifuji. He worked on the TS010 sportscar that contested Le Mans in 1992 and 1993, and in which Eddie Irvine set an outright lap record in the latter year. He then joined Toyota's move to GT racing, and helped to develop the first Supra GT of 1994. After a spell in passenger car chassis design in 2002 he returned to MSD to join the Formula 1 project. Two years later he moved to Toyota Motorsport as Senior Executive Co-ordinator Chassis. In 2006, he takes up a new role as Director Technical Co-ordination, and is thus responsible for liaison between Higashifuji and Cologne reporting to Yoshiaki Kinoshita.