Jost Capito: McLaren to part company with F1 boss after four months

Jost Capito (centre) won three World Rally Championships with Volkswagen.

McLaren are set to part company with their new Formula 1 boss Jost Capito less than four months after the German joined the company.

The 58-year-old started in his role as chief executive officer of McLaren Racing in September, having been recruited by chairman Ron Dennis.

But Dennis is on gardening leave pending the end of his deal next month.

And Capito, too is now on his way out, having been viewed as Dennis's man, BBC Sport has learned.

Capito is still an employee but is no longer working day-to-day for the company.

When asked about this situation, a spokesman said: "I'm not going to talk about that."

Capito was unavailable for comment.

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The move follows the recruitment in November of leading F1 commercial expert Zak Brown as McLaren's new executive director.

Brown and chief operating officer Jonathan Neale have been tasked with running the McLaren Group on a day-to-day basis.

In a separate development, long-time McLaren marketing chief Ekrem Sami has had his position as a director of the McLaren Group terminated.

Sami, 62, has been a long-time close ally of Dennis, for whom he has worked for nearly 40 years.

Dennis technically remains chairman and chief executive pending the end of his contract next month but no longer has an active role running the company. He is also a 25% shareholder in McLaren Group.

In Dennis' place, the company is being run by an executive committee formed by the other main shareholders - the Bahrain sovereign investment fund Mumtalakat, which owns 50%, and TAG's Mansour Ojjeh, who owns 25%.

Once Capito's departure is formalised, the most senior person at McLaren's F1 team will be racing director Eric Boullier, who was brought in at the start of the 2014 season after Dennis ousted his former friend and protege Martin Whitmarsh from the positions of McLaren team principal and chief executive officer of McLaren Group.

The Frenchman, 43, will report to Brown and Neale.