When McLaren Automotive chief design officer Tobias Sühlmann is on the lookout for inspiration, he doesn’t must go far to seek out it: he simply must exit for a sandwich.
“Every day when I go for lunch, I walk along this boulevard and suck in the history of the brand, and that’s something we need to think of for the future,” he says, gesturing alongside the primary atrium of the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking.
Along its huge size there sits an unimaginable show of equipment: race vehicles embrace Bruce McLaren’s M8D Can-Am monster, Alain Prost’s Formula 1 title-winning MP4/2B and Lando Norris’s present MCL38, whereas street vehicles vary from the fabled F1 and the transformative MP4-12C to the Speedtail and Elva.
The equipment is a reminder of McLaren’s wealthy heritage – and Sühlmann is utilizing it to chart a brand new path for the longer term. “I ask my team to walk down here, find some details and then develop a new interpretation of them,” he says. “When you see the boulevard, you get inspired – and you realise you can do a lot with this brand.”
This line of vehicles additionally explains why Sühlmann was lured again to McLaren – he served as Special Projects design chief in 2021, engaged on the virtual-racer-made-real Solus GT – from his function as Bentley’s head of exterior design final September.
“I’ve worked at a lot of companies, from big manufacturers to smaller firms,” the German says of a profession that has additionally included stops at Volkswagen, Bugatti and Aston Martin. “McLaren is my dream company.”
Sühlmann’s return to the supercar maker comes at a pivotal second, with the McLaren Group now owned totally by the Bahraini state funding fund after latest monetary troubles.
With ex-Ferrari man Michael Leiters in cost, the automotive division is a future vary enlargement – one more likely to embrace SUVs and electric cars.
