Div: In memoriam Wito van Kuijeren

Div: In memoriam Wito van Kuijeren
Div: In memoriam Wito van Kuijeren
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Div: In memoriam Wito van Kuijeren

Wito van Kuijeren, committed for decades to guiding young drivers in formula cars

At the end of the year comes the sad news of the death of our compatriot Wito van Kuijeren, who, as an engineer and team principal in the junior single-seater classes, made an important contribution to the development of countless drivers. Van Kuijeren had lived in Berlin for many years, where he was active for a long time for the Mücke Motorsport team of Peter and Stefan Mücke and used his technical knowledge and skills in many formula car series. Most recently, under the flag of his own company Engineering Consult, he worked in the world of simulators and the guidance of young drivers.

Text: René de Boer (Twitter: @renedeboer)
Photo: Rebocar/R. the farmer

Wito van Kuijeren, born in Heerhugowaard, followed the MBT course in Eindhoven, which he completed in 1993. He ended up in karting via Hans van der Ham’s Kombikart and when Hans’ son Hugo made the switch from karts to Formula Junior in Germany in the mid-1990s, Wito joined as a permanent mechanic. This was followed by Formula Renault, a class in which Van Kuijeren was later also active with Patrick Andriessen and his team. From 1998 he then worked for Adi Schlosser’s team SL Racing in the German Formula Renault for a number of years and then in 2007 he made the switch to Mücke Motorsport, a fixed value team in German racing.

For many years, Van Kuijeren was active in Formula 3 for Mücke Motorsport, later also in Formula 4. Peter Mücke entrusted him with a large part of the management activities within the team, knew that he could rely on the experience and skills of his Dutch employee. to trust. Van Kuijeren moved to Berlin, found love in his Franka, whom he married in 2011, and could be found on a circuit almost every weekend due to the extensive activities of Mücke Motorsport. German and Italian Formula 4, Formula 3 and later also Formula 4 in the Emirates.

Your reporter has known Van Kuijeren since the earliest years with Hugo van der Ham in Formula Junior and has always maintained good contact with the Dutch technician over the years. I always admired the angelic patience with which he tried to teach the riders entrusted to him (he often spoke of “the children”) the tricks of the trade, calmly explaining the technique, the secrets of data analysis. It was not uncommon for Van Kuijeren to drop by the press center in the evening, when the working day was over for both of us, where we philosophized about developments in formula car sport, positive or negative, the future of young talents or alleged talents, the phenomenon of “motorsport parents”, living as a Dutchman in Germany or many other things.

The last time we spoke at length was in Dubai in January 2019, where he led the Mücke team in Formula 4 UAE. There he already said that he was going to focus more on simulators, in which he saw more perspective than in formula car sport. Unfortunately, Van Kuijeren’s activities were not allowed to last too long: he passed away yesterday.


The article is in Dutch

Tags: Div memoriam Wito van Kuijeren

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