Williams have appointed German Jost Capito as their new chief executive officer from February 2021.
A widely respected and experienced motorsport manager, the 62-year-old’s most recent position in Formula 1 was as CEO of McLaren Racing.
He was at the team for five months until February 2017 before becoming a casualty of the McLaren Group’s split from former chairman Ron Dennis.
Capito has previously led motorsport programmes for Porsche, Ford and VW.
He said joining Williams was “a great honour during these exciting times for both the team and F1”.
Williams also confirmed Simon Roberts’ appointment as team principal.
Roberts was appointed acting team boss when the Williams family stepped away from the team in September.
The team, established by Sir Frank Williams in 1977 and one of the most successful of all time, was sold to investment group Dorilton Capital in the summer, after which the Williams family ceased their involvement.
Dorilton chairman Matthew Savage said: “Jost is an experienced and competitive individual, who has built winning teams and is a winner in his own right.
“He understands the Williams heritage and will work well with the team in pursuit of our objective to return to the front of the grid.”
Capito’s career has been a success across a range of disciplines.
A former motorbike racer who won the truck category of the Paris-Dakar Rally in 1985, he joined BMW, then managed Porsche’s motorsport division from 1989 before moving to the Sauber F1 team in 1996 as part of their executive committee.
While he was Ford’s motorsport director from 2001, he oversaw the US giant’s involvement in F1 and the world rally championship, where the company won the manufacturers’ title in 2006 and 2007.
Capito then moved to Volkswagen in 2012 as its motorsport director, winning the world rally title for four consecutive years before joining McLaren, after which he returned to VW to lead its ‘R’ division of performance road cars.
