PoloDriver

Announced at the end of March, ex-Ford Special Vehicle Team supremo Jost Capito has now officially become a member of the Volkswagen Motorsport team, taking up his post as Motorsport Director. Dr Ulrich Hackenberg, Member of the Board of Management of the Volkswagen Brand for Development, welcomed the 53-year-old Capito on Wednesday. At the same time he thanked outgoing Motorsport Director Kris Nissen, who has lead VW’s motorsport division to, among other victories, three consecutive Dakar Rally wins. Nissen will be supporting Volkswagen Motorsport in an advisory role.

Hackenberg commented: ‘I cordially welcome Jost Capito to our ranks as new Motorsport Director. I wish him and the team a lot of success. I view the transfer of Kris Nissen’s role to Jost Capito like the handover of a relay race baton. This process is taking place place hand in hand, and aims to accelerate afterwards. My personal thanks go to Kris Nissen – he has moulded the squad into a winning team over the past years.’

‘I’m very much looking forward to working together with this strong team and have a lot of respect for the successes that have been achieved so far. My first impression is that the squad is working with great enthusiasm, and big and interesting tasks are awaiting all of us and we will tackle them with high motivation. My thanks also go to Kris Nissen, who has done very good preparatory work and who will continue to play a part in this endeavour in order to assure a harmonious handover,’ said Jost Capito.

Capito joins Volkswagen Motorsport at an exciting time. The division is gearing up for a full-scale assault next year on the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) with the new Polo R WRC rally car, and has commitments in touring car racing with the Volkswagen Scirocco R Cup, which supports rounds of the German DTM championship. In addition, there are also numerous one-make global series in which Volkswagen is involved, such as the Volkswagen Polo Cup India and Engen Volkswagen Cup.