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).
Part #2 focused on his background, broader than simply JLR and involving some TT Mk1 designer icons.
Part #3 took a closer look at his appreciation for the 2000s era Audi range that sold alongside the TT.
The plan for this series is to cover two installments per day over five days. For this next installment, we examine his appreciation for the greater Audi design era inwhich the TT Mk1 was just one in a larger cohesive family of automobiles.
#4 SPEAKING ON WHERE AUDI GOES FROM HERE
Leaning into what makes Audi Audi has been an apparent theme for a while, but it’s still good to hear him spell it out.
“Everything we do needs to be recognizable as an Audi, first and foremost. It’s the value of a brand like Audi that has to be protected. Audi has that value, that legacy, that heritage, and it would be a shame to waste it.”
The piece suggests Concept C is the mission statement and that much is obvious, We’ve covered that a lot here but there are a few notable details worth mentioning.
Titanium Paint – “It continues the lineage of the silver Auto Unions”, and is further being proposed as a trademark color planned or Audi’s new era line-up. Likely that means you won’t be able to option it yet on the new RS 5 revealed just last week. As cool as it is, that car is more of a send off to the current era and so likely won’t get all the cards Frascella is planning to play likely once his own design era has fully arrived.
Vertically Oriented Grille – Inspired by the small grille of the Auto Union Type C Grand Prix car, it is intended as a radical departure from the now-much-copied singleframe that has been in use by Audi for two decades that passed surprisingly fast. And while the singleframe still feels modern, the ubiquitousness of its adoption by automotive also rans has watered down its effect and makes it no longer a signature of Audi alone. Sometimes it’s just time to move on. Here again though, cars like the new Audi RS 5 are a handsome and most fitting send-off to the era (my words and not his. The RS 5 likely hadn’t even been revealed at the time this conversation with Autocar took place ).