Share this article on LinkedIn Email

Volkswagen motorsport chief Jost Capito expects to begin his new role as the McLaren Formula 1 team's CEO in time for the Belgian Grand Prix.

Though his signing was announced by McLaren in January, it always made clear that Capito did not plan to move across from VW until his successor was in place.

He told Autosport recently that he wanted to be sure VW was well on the way to a fourth successive World Rally Championship title before departing.



Capito now intends to stay put for a further three WRC rounds and then make the move "quickly after Rally Germany", bringing him to McLaren in late August ahead of the Spa race.

He said he currently had "no idea" how he would fit into the existing management structure and had not been examining McLaren's form too closely as he had been trying to stay fully focused on his VW duties until he switched.

"The job at Volkswagen is a 24/7 job," Capito said.

"It's not only WRC, it's rallycross in the US and TCR [touring cars] and so on.

"As long as I'm there, I am doing a proper job there."

He said it would not be possible to get to a stage where he felt his work with VW was "finished" and his successor would immediately have a lot on their plate.

Capito cited developing the profile of the Global Rallycross series in which VW fields works Beetles with Andretti Autosport and improving the customer Golf in TCR as priorities for whoever followed him as well as fending off increased WRC competition as Citroen and Toyota return.

"There are a lot of jobs to do," he said. "A successor for me will not just come and sit there.

"In WRC next year the competition gets higher with Citroen being out this year and fully focusing on next year so they have an advantage with development.

"The same for Toyota, coming in with no testing restrictions.

"It's a tough job for us to keep up with the competition for the years after 2016."