Jost Capito said his Williams exit "was always the plan" as he finally broke his silence on his departure from the team.
Even though Williams' results last year made it not a surprise, Capito's exit from the team still came out of the blue. It was the first move in a whirlwind 24 hours which also saw McLaren replace the Sauber -bound Andreas Seidl with Andrea Stella.
No official reason was given for Capito's departure, nor that of technical director Francois-Xavier Demaison at the same time. The understanding is that, during is tenure, the German failed to convince many staff members to conform to his management style.
Capito was present at the Race of Champions in Sweden last weekend to watch the action. While there, he spoke to a reporter from Auto Bild and opened up on his departure from Williams.
"There hasn't been much rest, because you have to prepare quite a lot if you want to retire: apply for a pension and so on," he said when asked what he has been doing over the past few weeks since he left the team.
Shedding more light on why he left, Capito added: "Of course you don't have that insight from the outside, but I originally said that I'd do it for two years, maybe a third. In the meantime, however, there are so many races [per year] that it is relatively exhausting. And getting the team back up just takes longer than two or three years.
"We just talked because from the start it was always the plan that I would do it for two years, three at the most. So we talked about what's the right thing to do now, and it quickly became clear that now is a good time to hand it over."
While he was unable to inspire much success while at the helm, he feels there is now a platform in place for his successor – Mercedes strategy chief James Vowles starts officially from February 20th – to begin to reap the benefits in terms of performance and results.
"I just think you have to lay the foundation first and once it's laid, you can build on it. I was convinced that this is the case now and I also communicated this in conversation with the board – that now that you have the basis, you should also have someone who will stay there in the long term and continue it from there can."
And on Vowles' appointment, he said: "I've worked closely with James before, also with Mercedes and their drivers. He's incredibly competent, I like him a lot and he's also very good as a human being. Of course, I congratulated him accordingly."
Will he be seen again in an F1 management role? "I have to see what I'm doing. I would like to be of some help somewhere, maybe in a consultant role. Just help a little where you might be able to help. But not in such a big company anymore, with so many people and the whole day-to-day business."
