People

Jost Capito

Capito's motorsporting career began in endurance motorcycle racing and motocross when he was in his late teens. He won a variety of different titles in the two disciplines and moved on to taking part in the incredible Paris-Dakar Rally, across the middle of the Sahara Desert, some of the most hostile countryside in the world. In 1985 he won the truck category on the Dakar. At the same time he was studying engineering at the famous technical university in Munich and when he graduated he was picked by BMW to join its elite motorsport team in Munich, under Paul Rosche. He spent the next four years working as a development engineer during the successful BMW M3 touring car campaigns.In 1990, however, he received an offer from Max Welti - then the boss of Porsche AG's motorsport department - to switch to the Stuttgart firm to oversee the organization of Porsche's various different championships, while Welti tried to sort out the mess created by the abortive F1 program. Eventually, having failed to convince the company to return to F1, Welti left Porsche and joined Sauber. Capito took over his role as head of Porsche Motorsport but a year later he followed Welti to Sauber, being hired to look after the running of the Sauber Petronas Engineering operation, which was designing a Formula 1 engine for the Malaysian oil company. Unfortunately there was not enough money to see that project through and after the engine was shelved Capito was transferred to run operations at Sauber - replacing his old pal Welti, who had moved on again.In 1999 Capito was appointed chief operating officer for the team. He left the team in May 2001 to become director of Ford Special Vehicle Engineering in Cologne.