This 10 Things about Massimo Frascella series stems from an in-depth feature published by Autocar Magazine in its print version. Meant as an in-depth take on Audi’s Chief Creative Officer, it delved both into what brought him to Audi and where he plans to take the four rings during his tenure. Using that as a starting-off point, this series aims to highlight the key points while expanding them more in the Audi-specialist context this website aims to provide.
Part #1 began with Frascella’s taproot – the Audi TT (Mk1). The plan for this series is to cover two installments per day over the next five days. For this next installment, we examine his own design background that curiously seems to inadvertently coincide with the team that first created his original inspiration.
#2 MASSIMO FRASCELLA’S DESIGN BACKGROUND… NOT ALL JAGUAR LAND ROVER
Most of us know that Frascella came from JLR and that he was instrumental in the creation of of Land Rover’s modern Defender reboot. But, did you know what came before that. Massimo began his career as a student at Turin’s Institute of Applied Art & Design, moving next to Bertone, then Ford where he focused on Lincoln and Mercury brands (one wonders if this was during the J Mays era (1997-2014) or Freeman Thomas’ time there (2005-2014).
Both Mays and Thomas were instrumental in the creation of the first TT, and given Mercury was mentioned in the story, Massimo’s age (born in 1971) and the fact that Mercury as a brand was shut down in 2010, it seems to suggest he was.
Following his time at Ford, Frascella next lands at Kia’s California design studio for six years, leaving for JLR in 2011. If so, that has him both leaving shortly after Mays’ and Thomas’ Ford departures and arriving at Hyundai. Another TT (Mk1)-connected designer Peter Schreyer was Chief Design Officer at Kia from 2006-2013. No doubt they worked together, so it’s probably no surprise that a now-retired Peter Schreyer showed up as an honored guest at a TT-celebrating event at Audi’s Ingolstadt design center prior to the Concept C reveal – something we spotted on his Instagram months ago.
He moved to JLR in 2o11 then joined Audi in 2024. You probably know the rest of the story.