It is a curious state of affairs, but the announcement from Toyota Motorsport GmbH that Jens Marquardt (below), its General Manager Business Development, Operations and Production, will leave at the end of the year has announced BMW’s plans for the future, as the Toyota release says that Marquardt will become BMW Motorsport Director in January 2011, presumably replacing Dr Mario Theissen, who currently holds that position.
Marquardt (43) has been with the company in Cologne for 10 years. An aerospace engineer by training, he began his automotive career with Mercedes-Benz road cars before he was transferred to work with Ilmor Engineering where he worked as a development engineer before becoming a track engineer in IndyCar racing in 1999 and 2000. He then took the opportunity to move to Toyota, which enabled him to return to Germany and was involved in the development of the first Toyota F1 engine, he went on to become Manager of customer engine supply, working with Williams before being appointed team manager when Richard Cregan departed to run the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
TMG President Yoshiaki Kinoshita said: “While we are naturally sad to lose Jens, we can understand why this was an opportunity he felt he had to take and we wish him the very best for his future. As well as his valued contribution to our Formula 1 project from beginning to end, Jens has played a key role in TMG’s emergence as a leading provider of high-performance engineering services and we are very grateful for his efforts. TMG has been aware of Jens’s decision for some time. We are taking steps to strengthen our structure and ensure we can build on a very positive first year for TMG as a service supplier.”
TMG will confirm its new management structure in the coming weeks.
Theissen (58) has been in charge of BMW Motorsport since April 1999, initially in partnership with Gerhard Berger. Theissen was the main force behind BMW’s Formula 1 project, which began as an engine manufacturer in 2000, in partnership with Williams. The team came close to winning the World Championship in 2003 but things did not go as well in 2004 and in 2005 Theissen was hellbent on starting a BMW team. As a result the Munich company bought control of Sauber at the end of 2005 and this became BMW Sauber in 2006 with World Champion Jacques Villeneuve and Nick Heidfeld. Villeneuve was quickly removed and Robert Kubica joined the race team that summer. BMW Sauber went on to finish fifth in the Constructors’ Championship that year. In 2007 Heidfeld and Kubica remained with Sebastian Vettel as the test driver. The team finished second in the Constructors’ Championship, but with only half the points scored by the dominant Ferrari. Kubica walked away unscathed from a huge crash in Canada and had to sit out the next race, giving Vettel his F1 debut at Indianapolis. Vettel went off to Scuderia Toro Rosso after that leaving Heidfeld and Kubica the drivers for 2008 and the car proved to be a lot more competitive and in Canada Kubica won the team’s first victory, a 1-2 with Heidfeld behind him. The victory came after Lewis Hamilton collided with Kimi Räikkönen in the pitlane, but a win is a win and BMW celebrated. In the second half of the year, however, performance tailed off and the team ended up third in the Constructors’ Championship. The 2009 season proved to be a disaster with Kubica and Heidfeld struggling with the car. This was not good news for Theissen as he had announced that the team would be challenging for the title. The BMW board was not impressed and with economic problems and a need to focus R&D investment in environmentally-friendly technologies, the BMW F1 adventure came to and end. The sale of the team was badly botched but Peter Sauber in the end stepped in and saved the day, keeping the team alive in 2010.
BMW has since caught up with Toyota, confirming the news and explaining that Theissen and Marquardt will work side-by-side for the first six months to ensure “the seamless execution of the 2011 racing programme and preparations for the 2012 DTM project”.
“We have planned and prepared this changeover very carefully,” Theissen said. “With the realignment of BMW Motorsport and the decision in favour of the DTM project, the path to a successful future on the race track has been mapped out. Now is also the best time to entrust the leadership of BMW Motorsport to new hands. I have no doubt that in Jens Marquardt we have found the right man for this exciting task and I look forward to our time working together. On 1 July 2011 he will be perfectly equipped to take over the reins.”
Marquardt comments: “Heading up BMW Motorsport is a dream job for me and a tremendous show of confidence. The endurance events with the BMW M3, the broad-based customer sport programme, the promotion of junior racing talent, and above all the DTM project are all fascinating challenges. I know that Mario Theissen will support me in every way and I can hardly wait to get down to work.”
joeblogsf1 
Jens is a nice guy and had a huge talent of engineering and management. I have very calm and an impressive images on him while I did an interesting interview to him. I wish all success in his new position in BMW and gave me one if he have enough numbers of BMWs someday. I can fly to Munich to receive it!
Hmmm I wondered if Thiessen might be given the chop after the shambles that 2009 turned into for Sauber. While the relationship with Williams was far from as succesful anyone anticipated, its probably fair to say that taking over Sauber was a triumph of his ego over rationality. It always seemed to me he wanted to be a team boss more than he wanted to be a BMW employee.
Obviously this is hardly him getting sacked but but he has a good few years ahead of him in his career so perhaps he will pitch up back on the F1 scene again? Are any teams in need of a new senior manager?
I wonder what will happen to the good Dr. Theissen. Maybe the BMW board don’t want to tryst him with the DTM programme after his less than successful F1 venture.
This reminds of a great story from just after the rather acrimonious Williams-BMW divorce, the works BMW had just retired from the race with flames and smoke pouring from the rear of the car, the Williams mechanics sent a pic of the blazing car to the BMW garage with the caption ” engine fine chassis on fire!”
BMW has a policy of people retiring at 60 years of age, at least for their higher management levels. Theissen turns 60 in August 2012, and maybe they’re indeed preparing for that by having a period of handing things over to his successor.
But that would still leave one year in between, so either Theissen will spend his last year at BMW in another role or he is not interested in retiring that soon and already on the lookout for a job elsewhere in motorsport.
But it’s indeed odd for Toyota to effectively announce a management change at BMW – that’s not the normal way of handling such things. Maybe the decisions have long been taken but BMW was for some reason reluctant to put out an official press release, and Toyota couldn’t wait any longer to announce their part of this. If so, I’d be interested to know the reasons why BMW hesitated publicising it. Maybe Theissen and BMW didn’t fully agree on the future role or path for Theissen?
Does that mean we will see Dr. T back in F1 paddock on pitwall of one of the teams?
Williams4Ever
I doubt it.
I don’t know if it was something in the universal mind field or what but just last night I was loading a CNC at work thinking about Dr. Mario Theissen and what he’s been up to. I recalled last night a discussion that was either had here on your blog or in my mind about how Theissen was potentially at a crossroads as he loved BMW’s F1 opperation and when they quit he could have gone with it to run it ‘a la Brawn’ and see if it could improve or stay in his role at BMW and wait for the next promotional round in which he’d surely make the cut to jump up and take a new role in Munich…. then a couple winks later and a morning of catching up with Joe delivers me answer I pondered last night.
It really is odd… but I like it.
I find this very odd. Untill 2009 Mario’s 3 year plan was bang on, 2009 did not work out. But KERS could be easily blamed. I do not think the BMW board lost trust. In addition you do not replace the boss in the middle of the DTM car being developed. DTM is super important for the German market
I am sure Mario has quit and was not let go… But that is strange again after DTM would have been his pitch to the board.
i am not sure its true..
I should check it out..