Piech is a specialist in corporate defenestration at Volkswagen

Nobody does a corporate defenestration quite like Ferdinand Piech. Volkswagen's long-time chairman has ended the careers of many of the German carmaker's top executives with little more than a few carefully chosen words.

Franz-Josef Paefgen was one of the first to get a message through the press when Mr Piech said of VW's luxury brand Audi in 2001: "Gridlock reigns there." A few months later, Mr Paefgen resigned as head of Audi.

Now the 77-year-old Mr Piech has turned his sights on his most high-profile and surprising target: Martin Winterkorn, VW's chief executive for the past eight years and a long-time Piech loyalist. In comments to magazine Der Spiegel on Friday, the VW chairman said simply: "I am at a distance to Winterkorn."

That appears to end the long-assumed coronation of Mr Winterkorn as Mr Piech's successor as VW supervisory board chairman in 2017 and has also raised questions about if he can remain as chief executive to the end of his contract next year. But it also heightens concerns about Mr Piech himself, his appalling record in corporate governance (such as installing his wife, a former nanny, to the board), and the enduring soap opera that surrounds VW and Porsche.

Shortly after his verbal attack, Mr Piech seemed isolated. VW's two largest shareholders - carmaker Porsche and the state of Lower Saxony which together control 71 per cent of voting rights - made it clear they did not back Mr Piech's assessment. And Mr Piech's traditional allies of the labour representatives who make up half the supervisory board also gave Mr Winterkorn their strong backing. There is no clear successor to either Mr Winterkorn or Mr Piech.

VW watchers would do well to remember their history, however, as Mr Piech's attack on Mr Winterkorn is incredibly redolent of his move against Bernd Pischetsrieder. Mr Pischetsrieder succeeded Mr Piech as VW's chief executive in 2002 when the latter moved upstairs to become chairman.

VW suffered in the years after - many say due to problems Mr Piech created when chief executive - leading Mr Pischetsrieder to introduce one multibillion-euro cost-saving programme after another.

Mr Piech undermined his successor in two striking ways in 2006. First, he imposed a new human resources director at VW against the wishes of Mr Pischetsrieder and most of the shareholder representatives on the board. Second, he deployed a few choice words by saying that a new contract for Mr Pischetsrieder was "an open issue".

Outrage ensued. Porsche and Lower Saxony both backed Mr Pischetsrieder, having a few months earlier also agreed that Mr Piech should step down as chairman. Two months later, in May 2006, Mr Pischetsrieder indeed had a new contract as chief executive and Mr Piech seemed defeated as shareholders booed and whistled him at the annual meeting.

But as one VW supervisory board member warned at the time: "Piech always takes a long-term perspective and just when you think he's down and out - bam! - he comes back."

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Fast-forward nearly a decade and Mr Winterkorn seems to be facing a similar predicament to his predecessor. The situation at VW is nowhere near as dire - Mr Winterkorn is blamed for a weak US business but otherwise is targeting Toyota as the world's biggest carmaker, while Mr Pischetsrieder was trying to cut 20,000 jobs - but the chief executive will know to be on his guard.

Like Mr Pischetsrieder with the labour director, his authority appeared to be undermined when in December responsibility for the core VW brand was taken away from Mr Winterkorn and given to Herbert Diess, an ex-BMW manager. Equally, however, Mr Winterkorn is likely to be more combative in fighting his corner than the relaxed, cigar-smoking Mr Pischetsrieder, of whom a BMW official once said: "He smoked so much he didn't realise the building was on fire until the ceiling fell in."

Many would love to see the back of Mr Piech, a brilliant automotive engineer but a manager whose Machiavellian ways have spread paranoia among those below him. But history shows above all that VW's chairman takes a long view and is patient enough to endure setbacks on the way to achieving his goals.

Richard Milne is the FT's Nordic Correspondent and covered VW from 2004-10

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