Autocar has learned that Matt Becker, Aston Martin’s general manager for vehicle attributes – and winner of Autocar’s Mundy Award for Engineering – is set to leave the company for a new role at McLaren. David King, who heads Aston’s special vehicle operations, is also leaving.
The news comes just two months after the announcement of the arrival of Aston’s design director, Miles Nurnberger, to a new role within the Renault group, where he will lead design for the Dacia and Lada brands. Nurburger’s replacement has yet to be announced, and it now appears that company boss Tobias Moers has two more senior positions to fill. Becker’s departure will be a blow to Aston Martin, given the scale of the dynamic transformation he has helped bring to the company’s products since joining in 2015. Prior to that, he worked at Lotus – where his father Roger was the longtime chef. Chassis Engineering – with young Becker starting an engineering apprenticeship at the age of 16 on the same day as Gavan Kershaw, who is now Lotus Attributes Director.
Becker jumped on Aston Martin as the company launched its ambitious “second century” plan, which would see a complete renewal of its existing lineup as well as the development of the DBX, its first SUV. Work was already well under way on the DB11 when Becker arrived, but his influence on the Vantage and DBS Superleggera was much more evident. But he admitted that the DBX was the biggest challenge of his career to date, a challenge that – based on our experience with the car – the team he led has pretty much succeeded in.
While Aston has yet to make an official statement on Becker’s departure, Autocar understands he will join McLaren in 2022 after a period of gardening leave. Its new role has not been confirmed but will undoubtedly concern the dynamics of the chassis.
During this time, King worked for Aston for much longer, having joined the company in 1995 and having been heavily involved in road and race car projects, including the Le Mans WEC program which saw a great deal of success. success. Most recently he took the lead of the Wellesbourne-based Special Vehicle Operations team which was responsible for, among other things, the Vulcan, the previous generation Vantage GT8 and GT12 variants and the windshieldless V12 Speedster. According to reports, his new role will be at US electric vehicle maker Fisker Inc.
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Source: www.autocar.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-08-27 16:36:27
