Tanabe is a Honda veteran who joined the company in 1984 and took over as their technical director in 2018 in the middle of a fraught spell for the company. A senior manager for the Honda Performance Development team, he worked in Formula 1 as far back as 1990 as the engineer for Gerhard Berger at McLaren. Tanabe then worked as a race engineer in America, including work on Indycar engines. He then returned to Formula 1 in 2003 and became chief engineer for Jenson Button at the BAR-Honda team, staying with them for 5 seasons before working as Honda's race test manager. He then worked on the company's mass-production engine development at Head office before taking over the Formula 1 role until Honda's withdrawal at the end of 2021.

Biography last updated 10 Apr 2022