British Sportscar Guru Ansar Ali Takes Over McLaren Special Operations

They’re shaking up the order of things a bit over at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, bringing the racing and customization departments together. And to run them, McLaren has named Ansar Ali.

Never heard of him? Ali was general manager at Lotus for nearly five years, then served as CEO of Caterham for seven and a half. He and fellow Lotus/Caterham engineer Mark Edwards subsequently struck out on their own to start Zenos – another British firm dedicated to producing track cars.

McLaren Automotive plucked Ali out of his startup earlier this year to put him in charge of its new motorsports division – the unit, separate from the F1 racing team and the GT racing department, responsible for the 570S GT4 and 570S Sprint. And now it’s putting MSO under his direction as well.

McLaren Special Operations is the division responsible for everything custom done in Woking. That can range from special paint and trim to limited-run supercars. It also looks after vintage McLaren F1s for customers and runs programs like track days for owners of the P1 GTR. Now under common direction, we wouldn’t be surprised to see more special events run under MSO Programmes run for the Sprint cars or possibly an MSO Racing department.

Ansar Ali’s is one of several key appointments McLaren has made recently – though most of them have been on the grand prix side of the operation. The company recently brought in former Ford and Volkswagen rally chief Jost Capito to run the F1 team, and brought in Red Bull designer Rob Taylor to serve as its chief aerodynamicist. It also shook up its driver lineup by bringing in young gun Stoffel Vandoorne as Jenson Button leaves on sabbatical.