COLOGNE, 7th May 2003 - Ford of Europe has appointed Jost Capito as Director, Ford Team RS.  He takes charge of the recently formed organisation within its Product Development group, which combined the resources of the previous Ford Special Vehicle Engineering and Ford Racing units.

Capito was already responsible for developing and engineering road-going and competition cars that epitomise the three Ford performance brands – ST, RS and Cosworth.  He will now take additional responsibility for Ford’s European Motorsport activities in Rallying, Formula One, and circuit racing.

In welcoming Capito’s new appointment, Ford of Europe vice president for Product Development, Derrick Kuzak, said: “Jost has the qualities, experience and vision which we need to continue the progress we have been making across a broad front in the development of our Motorsport and performance vehicle programmes.  The Ford Focus RS is still getting rave reviews, while over the past month we’ve introduced our new Focus RS WRC car in New Zealand, and achieved our first Formula One Grand Prix win with Jordan Ford in Brazil.  Jost’s going to be a very busy guy, but he has a job that would be the envy of many thousands of people, from mature racing enthusiasts to the youngest of sports fans the world over.”

With his additional responsibilities, Jost will replace Martin Whitaker, Ford’s European Director of Motorsport, who is leaving the company.  Whitaker made a significant contribution to the growth of Ford of Europe's motor sport program over the past seven years.