An F1 boss said on 'Drive to Survive' S4 that he once asked a staff member to grab a racing driver's crotch to motivate him after he lost confidence

• Jost Capito, boss of the Williams F1 team, helped the outfit improve drastically last season.
• In the new series of Netflix show "Drive to Survive," Capito detailed his unique methods to inspire drivers.

Of all the methods of trying to drag an athlete out of a poor run of form, Jost Capito's might be the strangest, and most inappropriate.

Capito, one of the most successful motorsport directors in World Rally Championship history, took over as CEO of the Williams Racing Formula One team in December 2020 following the resignation of Claire Williams.

He was later named as team principal in June 2021, mid-way through the 2021 F1 season.

Williams was struggling at the time Capito took over the team, with drivers George Russell and Nicholas Latifi both struggling to break into the top 10 of the F1 grid and score points.

Speaking after his appointment on season four of the popular Netflix series "Drive to Survive," Capito said he hoped he could change the team's fortunes for the second half of the season before revealing an unusual method by which he once whipped a driver into shape during his time in rallying.

"Ive got one story from rally," he said. "One of the drivers lost the confidence in the car and I said to the co-driver, 'Squeeze his balls.'

"And he said, 'What?!' I said, 'Squeeze his balls.'

"So I asked a couple of seconds later, 'Did you squeeze his balls?' And he said, 'Yes.' And I asked the driver, 'Did you feel your balls?' And he said, 'Yes.'

"I said, 'OK, now you know you've got balls, go for it.'"

Though it's unclear whether Capito used the unusual method on Russell or Latifi, his arrival had a positive impact on the drivers with both enjoying a much improved second half of the campaign.

Latifi managed two top 10 finishes at the Hungarian and Belgian Grands Prix, while Russell managed four top 10 finishes, including an impressive second place finish in the curtailed race in Belgium, where he finished on the podium after a two-lap race, having qualified second on Saturday.

Capito will be without Russell for the 2022 F1 season after he joined Mercedes to team up with Lewis Hamilton.

The former Red Bull driver Alexander Albon has been drafted in to replace the Englishman, with Capito revealing after pre-season testing in Barcelona that he has been impressed with the 25-year-old's start to life at Williams.

"I'm very impressed, he is very good on the information he gives on evaluating the car," Capito said, according to Autosport.

"He is quite calm. He has a very good feeling for the car. He worked well with the engineers and with the overall team. I think is the right balance between nice guy and when he is in the car, he understands it. He's pushing and he is a fighter.

"I expected him to be really good within the team, but he exceeded my expectations."

Season four of "Drive to Survive" premieres on Netflix on March 11.