McLaren Applied Technologies has announced the appointment of Rodi Basso as Motorsports Director, where he will spearhead and continue to develop the company’s longstanding and highly regarded motorsport offering.

Basso is a well-known figure in motorsport and will arrive at McLaren from Magneti Marelli, where he headed up sales and marketing, first for the motorsport, and latterly the innovation division.

With an engineering background, he started his career as a race engineer at Scuderia Ferrari before moving to Red Bull Racing, and then went on to form his own successful engineering consultancy in motorsports electronics, vehicle dynamics and driving simulators.

Basso will lead the Motorsports arm of McLaren Applied Technologies and be responsible for partnership development, project delivery, product strategy and business growth. Basso is expected to take up his new role later this summer and will report directly into Chief Executive Officer Ian Rhodes.

Rhodes said, “As a well-regarded motorsport person, Rodi’s appointment is great news for McLaren Applied Technologies, for our many existing customers who depend on our high quality products to go racing around the world, and also for future customers. Rodi’s insight, experience and leadership skills will be invaluable assets as we continue to develop this important part of our business, and his appointment reaffirms our clear commitment to motorsports.”

Commenting on his new role, Basso said: “McLaren is renowned worldwide as a symbol of performance and excellence, and McLaren Applied Technologies has always represented the industry benchmark. It’s therefore a privilege for me to be charged with leading the development of Applied’s motorsport business, and I’m excited to start building on its many successful relationships and to talk to customers to help evolve our product offering in line with their needs.”