1975-1990: From active Racing Driver to Team Manager, Le Mans Winner and World Champion Welti studied mechanical engineering at
EPFL, and
ETH Zurich while he began racing. He raced for three years in the Swiss Sports Prototype Championship, which he won in 1980 on a Wittwer March BMW. After his active racing days, Welti moves into operational racing and becomes Sauber's first Team Manager. He helps the team become one of the most successful in
Sports car racing. In 1986,
Mike Thackwell and
Henri Pescarolo gave the
Sauber-Mercedes team its first win at Nürburgring 1000 km. Two years later, with backing from the German electrical giant
AEG, the Swiss team battles Jaguar for the
World Sportscar title.
Mercedes-Benz officially returns to racing and the Sport Prototypes are painted silver again in 1989, for the first time since 1956.
Jean-Louis Schlesser wins the Drivers' World title that year. The team dominates the
Constructors' title, winning seven of a total of eight races. In the
Le Mans 24 Hours the team scored a 1–2 victory with "the new Silver Arrows" driven by
Jochen Mass/
Manuel Reuter/
Stanley Dickens, with
Mauro Baldi/
Kenny Acheson/
Gianfranco Brancatelli finishing in second place. In 1990, Schlesser and Baldi shares the Drivers' title while Mass drives alternately with the three Mercedes Juniors:
Michael Schumacher,
Karl Wendlinger and
Heinz-Harald Frentzen. The team wins the
Constructors' title for a second time in 1990.
1991-1994: Race Director In 1991, Sportscar Racing went into decline and Welti was offered the job of being F1 Project Manager for
Porsche Motorsport, in a new relationship with the
Footwork team. The Porsche engine was, however, a disaster and as a result Welti pulled the team out of F1. As Porsche Motorsport Director worldwide, he was responsible for the complete reorganization of the motorsport department. In 1993, Welti launched the
Porsche Supercup and himself led the negotiations with F1 Boss
Bernie Ecclestone as it was to take place as an international one-make cup and support series in Formula One. In 1994, once again, Welti celebrated with Porsche and his team another triumph with the modified version of the 962 at the
24 Hours of Le Mans driven by Mauro Baldi/
Hurley Haywood/
Yannick Dalmas. With Max Welti as racing director and racing engineer
Norbert Singer as project leader, two racing cars and one reserve car were developed, built and tested in record time and brought to the Le Mans race.
1995: Vice President of Sauber Formula 1 In May 1995 Welti decided to return to
Sauber as team director of the new Formula 1 team. He was particularly instrumental in establishing a new and more efficient structural team organisation and building up an especially tight relationship with its Malaysian sponsor
Petronas as well as with its engine manufacturer Ferrari as of 1997.. Furthermore, he led the team to its first podium finish.
2000-2003: V8STAR - Setting up Europeans 1st Silhouette touring car championship From 2000, Welti was responsible as chief executive officer for setting up the
V8STAR touring car series in Germany, a championship for tubular frame vehicles with silhouettes of well-known manufacturers such as Jaguar, Volkswagen, Opel, Ford, Lexus, Audi and BMW with uniform V8 engines under the hood and renowned pilots at the steering wheel.
2005-2009: Team Principal Swiss National Team - A1 GP Worldcup of Motorsport In 2004, Welti became Franchisee and Team Principal in the A1 GP Worldcup of Motorsport and built up the Swiss national motorsport team. With
Neel Jani, the
A1 Team Switzerland won the World Cup of Motorsport in 2008 and was runner-up in 2006 and 2009. The team also supported other Swiss drivers such as
Marcel Fässler,
Sébastian Buemi,
Alexandre Imperatori,
Tom Dillmann,
Rahel Frey and
Natacha Gachnang. No other team nor driver were more successful than Switzerland and Jani in this global championship.
2013-2017: Volkswagen Group Welti entered the international limelight again in 2013. As member of the
Volkswagen Group Motorsprt Steering Committee, he was sent to Italy as Motorsport Director of Lamborghini Squadra Corse to build up a new motorsport department there. After that task was completed, Welti traveled to all important races in Europe and on the American continent for six years, leading negotiations with organizers, promoters, federations and technicians of different racing series.
2018-2023: BMW Group Between 2018 and 2020 Welti is a strategic motorsport advisor to BMW. He travels to important races of the WEC, IMSA, Formula E, DTM as well as WRX and is on site at endurance classics such as Nürburgring, Spa, Le Mans, Sebring and Daytona.
2009 until today: Consultant for racing series, promoters, sponsors and OEMs Nowadays, Welti works internationally as an independent expert for promoters, sponsors and OEMs. Since 2019, he is also the Sporting Director of the all-electric SuperCharge racing series. == Awards ==