Background: Who are FX Demaison and Jost Capito?
F1 News
On Wednesday morning, Williams Racing confirmed a number of changes to their personnel as a result of an internal restructure. Team Principal Simon Roberts has left the team immediately, whilst FX Demaison and Jost Capito take on the responsibilities. But who are they?
FX Demaison
Francois-Xavier (FX) Demaison, joined Williams in March 2021 as the team's new technical director. He has a wealth of experience in the world of motorsport in a wide range of roles. He spent the last 10 years at Volkswagen where he worked on the technical development of a number of projects.
He was directly responsible for the Polo R WRC car which went on to win all three titles in the World Rally Championship four times in a row between 2013 and 2016. He has also helped develop ground-breaking technology with the ID.R electric race car which found success at Pikes Peak and the Nurburgring.
His previous experience in Formula 1 links back to Renault and Peugeot. He also worked in Touring Car and again World Rally as the Chief Rally Engineer for the Subaru World Rally team.
Linking up with Jost Capito
During Demaison's time at Volkswagen, Jost Capito rejoined the German car manufacturer. Capito played multiple different roles at the company, including Motorsport Director.
In 1996 Capito moved to Sauber and became a member of the executive committee. He later moved to Ford in 2001. He was the Ford Europe’s Motorsport Director working with Formula Ford, F1 with the Jordan Team, and the World Rally Championship (WRC). His team came out on top in 2006 and 2007.
In 2012, Capito returned to Volkswagen as Motorsport Director. He joined FX Demaiso in winning all three titles in the World Rally Championship four times in a row between 2013 and 2016. Capito's move to Williams was confirmed in December 2020.
At Williams
Over the last few years, Williams have been parked at the back of the grid. With George Russell, Sergey Sirotkin, Robert Kubica and Nicholas Latifi as their main drivers, Williams have struggled to score points with a car that simply wasn't strong enough.
Under the financial pressures, the Williams family sold the team but the name remains on the grid. This latest reshuffle allows the team to move into a structure which is replicated by most teams up and down the F1 paddock.
Since arriving, Capito has made a deep analysis of what is causing the Williams underperformance. There is a deep belief that there is communication issues between the different departments and this reshuffle could help solve these issues. They hope to have this fixed ahead of the bounceback which Williams plan to achieve when the rules and regulation book is rewritten for 2022.