THE Leafield-based Super Aguri F1 team have promoted Mark Preston to technical director.

He takes up his new job straight away and will continue to attend all race and test events while managing the design and research and development departments at the SAF1 Team factory in Leafield.

Graham Taylor has been promoted from his current role of chief race engineer to the newly-created position of sporting director.

In his new role, Taylor will be responsible for the race and test team performance and all related activities. For the remainder of the 2006 season he will continue to oversee the engineering department with no further personnel changes.

Further promotions within SAF1 Team include Ben Wood to the role of head of aerodynamics, Stephen Watt becomes head of electronics and Gerry Hughes starts his new role of head of research and development while continuing his position as race engineer for Takuma Sato.

Preston said: ''I am glad that Aguri has been able to bring stability to the team and cement our future direction. It is a credit to all who have worked so hard and delivered so much over this first year of racing.

"Through our constant improvement we have come from approximately seven per cent off the pace at our first Grand Prix in Bahrain and are now within three per cent of the front runners at recent races, a huge effort in anyone's books!"