Thiessen to handover BMW Motorsport leadership

BMW Motorsport has announced that his current director, Mario Thiessen, will retire from his job in 2011. On the 30th of June 2011, Thiessen will handover his place to Jens Marquardt, a 43-year-old that will join the company on January 1st 2011.

On the first six months of the year Theissen will be helping Marquardt to familiarize himself with his new task. The goal is to secure that the execution of the 2011 racing programme and preparations for the 2012 DTM project don’t suffer with the change.

“We have planned and prepared this changeover very carefully,” explains Theissen. “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 on his side says that “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.”

Having first joined BMW back in 1977 as a development engineer, Mario Theissen took on various responsibilities in engine development before going on to run the BMW Innovation Centres in Munich and Palo Alto. Since the 1st of April 1999 he has been in charge of BMW’s motor sport programme.

Born on 20 May 1967 Marquadt has a degree in aerospace technology but has made his career in engine development. Between 1996 and 2000 he worked for Ilmor Engineering on the development of Formula One and CART engines. He then joined Toyota Motorsport and initially worked in the Formula One engine department. From 2008 we was F1 Operations and Team Manager. His most recent post was as General Manager Business Development, Operations & Production.