As part of Mulally’s plan to create a single cohesive company under the Ford brand, Ford has named Jost Capito as director of global performance vehicles and motor sports business development for Ford. Prior to the new title, Capito was the director of Ford Team RS, which functions as the performance division for Europe – much like SVT in the United States.
Prior to joining Ford Motor Company, Capito CEO for the Sauber Formula One team, and before that Capito spent many years in competitive racing as a driver and rider. Capito grew up racing endurance bikes and competing in motorcross, and eventually went on to win the truck category in the Paris-Dakar Rally across the Dahara Desert in 1985.
Capito joined Ford in 2001 as director of the Special Vehicle Engineering team, and since moved to work as the director of Team RS and was one of the individuals that was instrumental in the development of the European Ford Focus RS. Capito will now be based out of Dearborn, Michigan, and will travel to Europe on a regular basis along with other members of the global team.
Capito joked about the impending travel plans for Ford’s performance team members, “There’s going to be a lot of platinum fliers.”
Capito’s joke is referring to the major changes that will be occurring in the way that Ford’s two performance divisions, SVT and RS, operate in the future. Ford will be switching to a more centralized approach to development and testing, and as part of the change Ford will be developing a common set of performance goals, testing parameters and shared technology.
