General Manager and Team Principal Jost Capito will leave Williams after two years in charge of the team.
The 64-year-old former auto industry executive joined the team in December 2020, months after it was taken over by investment group Dorilton Capital.
Frenchman François-Xavier Demaison, who was appointed technical director of Williams by Capito in early 2021, is also leaving his job.
No reason for Capito’s sudden departure was given by Williams.
Dorilton Capital chairman Matthew Savage said in a statement: “We would like to thank Jost for his hard work and dedication as we embarked on a major transformation process to begin Williams Racing’s recovery journey.
“We are grateful that Jost has postponed his planned retirement to meet this challenge and now he will hand over the reins for the next part of this step-by-step process.”
Capito said in the same statement: “It has been an immense privilege to lead Williams Racing over the past two seasons and lay the foundation for the turnaround of this great team.”
Dorilton bought Williams from the family of late team founder Sir Frank Williams in the summer of 2020 in a bid to bring them back to competitiveness after a slump in form.
He signed Capito from the Volkswagen Group following a 2020 season in which the team finished last in the championship for the third consecutive year.
The team improved in 2021, finishing eighth, their best finish since 2017.
This was largely thanks to George Russell’s stunning performance at the Belgian Grand Prix, when he qualified the Williams as second in the wet. He was classified in the same place in the race, which was called off without a race lap taking place due to bad weather.
Russell and Nicholas Latifi also picked up four more points in 2021, finishing the season with 23 points and ahead of Alfa Romeo and Haas.
Williams was unable to sustain that momentum until 2022, which saw F1 introduce a major set of rule changes aimed at bringing racing closer together and bringing the peloton closer together.
Their car was the slowest on the field and although British-born Thai Alex Albon impressed as Russell’s replacement, Williams again dropped to last place, with just eight points.
At raw qualifying pace, the Williams was more than 0.3 seconds per lap on average slower than the next slowest car of the 2022 season.
According to a source close to the team, Dorilton decided this summer not to renew Capito’s contract and to look elsewhere for a team principal.
The company now also needs to find a new technical director to lead its design group.
Albon has signed a new two-year contract for 2023 and 2024 and he has been joined in the squad for 2023 by former Dutch Formula E champion Nyck de Vries.
Capito revived Albon’s career by opting to give him a seat at Williams after he was demoted to reserve driver by Red Bull after two seasons with their teams.
Albon paid tribute to Capito following the announcement of his former boss’s departure, writing on Twitter: “We only had a year working together, but in that time you weren’t just a director of team, but also a great friend. Thank you Jost for your confidence in me this year and all the support that comes with it.”
