Williams have made two appointments, with Jost Capito made their new CEO. Simon Roberts will retain the role of Team Principal for 2021.
Williams have made some changes at management level ahead of 2021, as new owners Dorilton Capital start the task of moving the team up the grid.
With the Williams family selling up earlier this summer, Dorilton appointed Simon Roberts as interim Team Principal in the wake of Claire Williams’ departure. Roberts will now retain that role on a fulltime basis for 2021.
Speaking over the Abu Dhabi weekend, Roberts said that the path upwards for the team as defined by Claire Williams is being stuck to be the new owners.
“There’s a lot of synergy between the road map that Claire had laid out and we’re staying very true to that.” Roberts explained. “We want to be a great place to work. We want to make sure we’re caring and kind to all the people who work for us and we want to just do all the right things. In terms of the technology though, we now have the opportunity to invest and that’s what we’re doing. That’s started already.”
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“There’s not much impact of that on the car we’re racing on now but we will start to see that next year.” Roberts continued. “Really this year is part of a long-term strategy, I always say, and that will build slowly over the next five years. The main thing is, we want to invest wisely, we don’t want to make mistakes and we want to play the long game and that’s what we’re doing.”
Jost Capito has also been signed as their new Chief Executive Officer. He’ll join Williams on the 1st of February 2021. The German has decades of experience in the automotive and motorsport industries. He will take on the day to day running of Williams, reporting back to Dorilton Chairman Matthew Savage.
A former racer, Capito began his career with BMW’s M division before joining Porsche in 1989. He joined Sauber Petronas Engineering in 1996, before switching to Ford as their Motorsport Director in 2001. He oversaw Ford’s motorsport activities, including Ford’s deal with Jordan as well as the World Rally Championship efforts.
Jost joined Volkswagen as Motorsport Director in 2012, at the helm for their WRC titles, before briefly taking over from Ron Dennis as CEO at McLaren in 2017. He joined Volkswagen’s R division in 2016, but now switches back to F1 with Williams.
“It’s a great honour for me to join Williams Racing during these exciting and demanding times for both the team and for Formula One.” said Capito. “It is an honour to be a part of the future of this storied team, and one that carries such a poignant name in the sport, so I approach this challenge with great respect and with a huge amount of relish.”
