The name might not be familiar but his work certainly is - Frank Stephenson has been involved in the design of the modern MINI, the Fiat 500, Alfa’s MiTo, and BMW’s X5 to name but a few. An impressive resume on its own, but throw in the fact that Stephenson was also involved in Pininfarina’s F430 and Maserati MC12 renditions, and you’ll start to appreciate why McLaren wanted him on deck.

Stephenson is to take up office as the new Chief of Design at McLaren. Given that the successor to the F1 has already been signed off, his appointment may be an indication that McLaren is looking to introduce new models that will allow more direct competition with other high-performance manufacturers.

So it looks like McLaren aren’t too troubled by the recent split with Mercedes-Benz. With talent like Frank Stephenson on the team, it’s not hard to see why.