FORMER Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn was hired as team chief of rival Formula One team Honda yesterday.

Brawn, who spent 10 years at the Italian giants, will work alongside Honda chief executive Nick Fry and have full responsibility for designing, manufacturing and engineering the team's F1 operations.

"His experience in winning world championships in Formula One will be crucial as we seek to put Honda back in to championship contention and I am delighted that we will be working together to achieve that," Fry said.

Brawn is considered the driving force behind Michael Schumacher's success. The two were together at Benetton in the early 1990s, winning world titles in 1994 and 1995, before both moved to Ferrari in 1996.

Schumacher finally ended Ferrari's 21-year run without a drivers' title in 2000, the first of five championships in a row.

Ferrari won six successive constructors' titles from 1999.

"Honda have a proud heritage in Formula One and the opportunity to help the team realise their potential represents a fantastic new challenge for me in the sport," Brawn said.

He left Ferrari in October 2006 on a year's sabbatical to "turn his attention to his personal life", a statement then said.

Honda had a poor 2007 season, with Jenson Button earning only six points and teammate Rubens Barrichello failing to score any.

Button blamed the car in a British newspaper interview on Sunday, saying it was a "complete dog" and threatened to leave the team unless improvements were made.

Meanwhile, Ferrari F1 team boss Jean Todt will be replaced by Stefano Domenicali in January.

Todt, who has been team principal on an interim basis, looks set to revert to his role as chief executive of the overall company, including the commercial car business.

ASSOCIATED PRESS, REUTERS