Designing the supercars of tomorrow

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Tobias Sühlmann has an eye to the future. As the Chief Design Officer of McLaren Automotive, his job is to create unique supercars, initially under a veil of secrecy, that will ultimately be on collector wish lists long into the future.

Self-confessed car enthusiast Rahim Daya, who is also our Private Bank CEO of Switzerland and Head of Middle East, spoke to Tobias about the firm’s insatiable appetite for innovation.

Rahim Daya (RD): Being Chief Design Officer for a supercar brand such as McLaren Automotive is a dream job for many people. How does it feel?

Tobias Sühlmann (TS): It’s definitely a dream job. I’ve worked with several other supercar brands over my 20-year career, but my highlights in the industry have been with McLaren.

When the team and I sit down to create a new supercar or hypercar, I feel like we’re helping to shape the future. We’re not just creating modes of transport but works of art and objects of desire. 

RD: I love the phrase ‘works of art’. What were your main priorities when you started the job in September 2023? 

TS: The first thing I did was to sit down with my team to work on the design DNA signature. With any car, there are three key elements: the front, the side and the rear. You need to define a design signature that separates different models from each other, but you also want them to feel as though they are part of the same product family.

As the average car has a gestation period of between five and six years from conception to being driven by customers, looking ahead is also important. If I asked you to design a car that you wanted to drive today, you could probably do a reasonable job. But what if I asked you to design the car that you’d want in six years’ time?

RD: A fascinating point. Can you tell us a little more about the journey involved in designing a new car?

TS: Every new car begins with a sketch, which we then refine through design editing software, before creating models in clay and virtual reality. Getting input from our racing partners is also a key part of the process. McLaren was born in racing so it’s important to learn from their expertise and see what we can apply to our own car designs. I still find it really exciting to visit the wind tunnel, which is based in our headquarters in Surrey.

RD: Something else I’d like to know more about is how you manage to keep your designs a secret. Every industry has leaks…

TS: Before we introduce a new limited production model to the wider public, we have a closed viewing with select customers. This usually means that all of the production run is sold before any public information is released. Obviously, this requires a great deal of trust.

Even internally, we have very strict security controls over who can enter the design studio when we’re working on a new model.

RD: How do you use virtual reality in car design and what are the benefits?

TS: Working in virtual reality gives you more creative freedom because you can have as many virtual models as you like, which you can’t do with physical models. 

The technology can also be really useful when you’re looking to get senior management approval of a design. We all walk around the car in virtual reality with our glasses on and it can really bring an idea to life.

Seeing the design in this way also saves a lot of time because we can make quicker decisions. If something needs to change in terms of aerodynamics, we can see it in real-time. I can then go back to the clay model and make any changes I need. This way, virtual reality and the real world can work hand-in-hand.

RD: Carbon fibre is key to the design of McLaren Automotive’s supercars. What’s the history behind this?

TS: We were the first Formula One team to introduce a carbon chassis into our cars in 1981¹. Shortly after, other teams did the same thing². In terms of market leadership and innovation, we are the only supercar manufacturer producing models entirely made of carbon fibre. 

A couple of years ago, we invested in our Composites Technology Centre in Sheffield and that is where we produce our carbon fibre tubs, which form the main structure of our cars.

RD: And what are the benefits of using carbon fibre in car design?

TS: We’re always looking for lightweight performance. It’s really important to get the right ratio of horsepower to weight, which can create greater energy efficiencies.

When I’m working on a design, I speak to the racing team and ask them about the thinnest carbon fibre they use in their designs. If it is thinner than ours, I consider whether we can apply it to our streetcars. Our supercars are made for the road and not racetracks, but we can still learn from our racing partners.

RD: Outside of the car world, are there any other sectors leading the way in innovation? 

TS: For me, there are two key examples. The first is aerospace. When you think about Concorde, it’s still a good-looking plane, which was shaped by aerodynamics to be the fastest in the world at the time³. It has an integrated rear wing, which you don’t see. Our cars also have an integrated rear wing on some of our models, which is something we’ve learned from the aerospace industry.

I also love real Swiss watches. Everyone enjoys an analogue watch because it offers you a tactile experience, which is something we bring to our cars. It gives you a real connection when you touch something, which can be very inspiring. 

You could say one of those examples is about driving ideas from a technical point of view and the other is much more about craftsmanship and emotion.

RD: Where did your fascination with cars begin? 

TS: When I was a kid, I loved to draw cars and my parents said that I could draw in 3-D when I was five years old. I got really hooked on the idea of working in the industry when I read an article in a German car magazine about a university course on transportation design. Even then, I thought that I could turn my love of sketching into a profession.

RD: Lots of kids draw cars, but not all of them end up in your job. Why supercars?

TS: I love all cars, but supercars have something special. They go to the limit and try to be at the forefront in terms of technology and innovation. 

RD: Do you have a favourite supercar yourself?

TS: I love the Artura. You can go into the E-mode (emissions-free) and drive through the city and then really speed up on the country roads. I also like the fact that McLarens are easy to enter and exit. With some supercars, you feel like you have to do yoga poses to get in and out.

Then, there’s the McLaren F1, which was first produced in the 1990s as a three-seater sports car and really was something special. It had a price tag of roughly one million dollars when it launched and now changes hands for approximately $20.5 million at auction⁴.

But my favourite car is always the one I’m currently working on.

RD: If it’s possible to say, where do you see the future of cars in five, 10, 20 or even 50 years?

TS: There’s a lot of innovation happening right now. As a small company, we can be open to developing models that our customers love to drive, which is something that won’t change in 50 years.

If you think of autonomous driving, there will be some cars that you can sit in and be driven in the future, but McLaren cars will be like a racehorse. You don’t have horses in big cities anymore, but you have horseracing as a sport on a track. People will always love to drive cars themselves and driving will always be a sport.

One thing we know about our customers is that they love to take their cars to the racetrack and they do higher mileage in their McLarens than some of their other cars in their collection.

But to go back to my earlier point, there are many exciting developments in the industry at the moment that it almost feels as though we’re already in the future.