McLaren Reportedly Sacks CEO Jost Capito After Just Four Months

There’s a big game of musical chairs taking place at McLaren, and the one left without a chair when the music stops could be McLaren Racing chief executive officer, Jost Capito. According to Pitpass, McLaren has put Capito on what Brits call “gardening leave” before his ties with the racing team are formally severed.

The former head of Ford’s rally team and European performance operations, Capito is credited with masterminding Volkswagen’s four back-to-back World Rally Championships. That was before Ron Dennis tempted him away to McLaren – just in time for VW to pull the plug on the entire operation.

Capito’s signing was announced last January, but it took until September for him to make the move over to Woking, taking up position as CEO of the Formula One racing team. But his patron Dennis was ousted by the other shareholders shortly thereafter, leaving Capito’s job in jeopardy – especially with colleagues occupying similar roles.

McLaren brought Eric Boullier in from Lotus less than three years ago to serve as racing director, and more recently named Zak Brown as the team’s executive director. All the while, Jonathan Neale continues to serve as COO of the umbrella McLaren Technology Group.

Meanwhile, Autosport reports that McLaren has asked Ekrem Sami to step down from the board. Sami was a longtime ally of Ron Dennis’. His seat will reportedly be filled by London lawyer John Riches, who’s vote is apparently expected to more closely reflect the opinions of the controlling shareholders.