Jost Kapito believes he would not be as successful as he is without a short stint with the McLaren F1 team.
One of Jost Kapit’s 30-year careers was with the McLaren F1 team in 2016, but his time at the helm of the team was short-lived, lasting just four months.
Joost Kapito, who was 58 at the time, was hired as the team’s CEO by Ron Dennis, the chairman at the time. But after Ron Dennis was banished, Joost Kapito quickly followed him. Zak Brown is currently in that position.
It took Jost Kapito four years to return to F1. He became Team Principal with Williams F1 and took up his current role as CEO.
Jost Kapito looks back on his short stint with the McLaren F1 team and believes it helped shape who he is today, despite his short stint.
“I wouldn’t say it didn’t work out at McLaren,” Jost Kapito told the High Performance Podcast.
“I met Ron and had quite a long discussion. We got closer and I think I learned a lot from him.”
“I knew he ran McLaren, but I looked up to him for a very long time and what he did was fantastic.”
“He told me that he had chosen me to lead the team. It was a great honor for me and we had a long discussion. I don’t think I could have done as good a job as I have without her.”
Joost Joost Capito says discipline is one of the biggest lessons he’s learned from Ron Dennis, but admits he’s not as strict as his Taskmaster predecessor.
“We didn’t always have the same opinion,” says Jost Kapit.
“But I was able to have a proper discussion and see what kind of background he had. He was very extreme and what I learned from him is just discipline.”
“I also learned from him what not to do. For example, in the engineering office we weren’t allowed to drink coffee because it could damage the floor.”
“Are you doing it today? Yes, we are careful. We can do it a little more freely.”
“I’m very impressed with how Ron set up the company, how he runs the company, the discipline, the way he approaches people and how we motivate people. I accepted it, and it was very impressive.”
One of Joest Capito’s most pressing tasks after Williams Racing confirmed that it would not extend Nicolas Latifi’s contract beyond this season is to find a driver for the 2023 season.
Category: F1 / Williams / mclaren
