Jens Marquardt leaves his position at BMW Motorsport

Upcoming change at the head of BMW Motorsport. The Munich firm confirmed this Friday the departure of Jens Marquardt starting November 1st. The end of an era within the competition department since Marquardt took over from Mario Thiessen in 2011.

“I will always have moving memories of the last ten years, comments the manager. I experienced all the ups and downs of motorsport with an exceptional team.

I am very grateful to the BMW Group and the entire motorsport family for all these memories. After 25 years in motorsport, I am very much looking forward to taking on a new challenge. »

Under his leadership, BMW, which successfully returned to DTM, with a first title in 2012, had started the GTE / GTLM program with its M8, a choice with mixed results, since if the car shone in IMSA, the results at Le Mans and in WEC did not follow.

It was also under the direction of Marquardt that BMW developed the M6 ​​GT3 which won the 24 Hours of Spa in 2016 and 2018 and the 24 Hours of Nürburgring this year. The M4 GT3 will arrive in 2022 to succeed the M6.

Jens Marquardt will now head BMW's "Pilot Plant", which manages the construction of the firm's prototypes. He will be temporarily replaced at the head of BMW Motorsport by Markus Flasch, current boss of the M branch of BMW, which brings together high-performance cars from the German range.

BMW Motorsport will continue its official involvement in Formula E, as well as in GT, the DTM program via the current technical regulations should logically end at the end of the year.