McLaren's New Design Chief Works for Aston Martin, Bugatti

McLaren Automotive on Friday named Tobias Suleman as its new chief design officer. [He succeeds Rob Melville, who left McLaren last year to join Ceer, the new Saudi Arabian electric car brand.

Suleman has more than 20 years of experience in automotive design, most of it earned at the Volkswagen Group. He was previously head of exterior design at Bugatti and Aston Martin and also worked at McLaren.

His last position before heading design at McLaren was design director at Bentley.

In his previous position at McLaren, he was the lead designer for special projects. One of the cars he oversaw the design of was the Solus GT, a hypercar designed specifically for circuit driving, which was unveiled last year.

In his new role as chief design officer, Suleman will lead a team responsible for future concepts, exterior and interior styling, as well as colors and materials. This team will also work with customers who want to personalize their cars.

Suleman will also be responsible for developing a new design language for McLaren. McLaren's current design language dates back to the P1 hypercar, which was unveiled 10 years ago.