There are tough jobs in the automotive industry, and then there’s the CEO of McLaren Automotive. The ambition for the Woking firm, still only a decade or so into existence as a car maker, was always as tough as it gets: to take on and beat Ferrari.
And who better to lead you into the next generation than a heavyweight from your biggest rival? In this case, that’s Michael Leiters. The new McLaren CEO has a formidable track record: most recently he was technical director at Ferrari during a golden age for the Prancing Horse's models and he also did a stellar stint at Porsche that included the development of the Cayenne.
He has arrived at McLaren at a tough time, though. The firm has struggled to get its new Artura hybrid supercar into production and has a range of models that are all frankly too similar to one another, with plenty of overlap and not enough to distinguish them.
Like all car makers big and small, McLaren has found itself undergoing change like never before with the dawn of the electrification era – something even a giant the size of the Volkswagen Group is struggling to adapt to, let alone such a small car maker as McLaren that lacks a technical partner or a link-up with a larger manufacturer (something that it’s known to be pursuing).
Its first step into the electrification era is with the Artura, which has been beset by software problems in its development but is now finally ready to be launched.
Despite many challenges and issues, from the self-inflicted to those that it was caught in the crossfire of, McLaren has still achieved what seems quite unbelievable: it has not only become a Ferrari rival, but it has forced Ferrari to raise its game.
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