Chris Goodwin has departed his role as chief tester at McLaren to join Aston Martin – with the British racer expected to play a key role in the Valkyrie’s development.

At McLaren, Goodwin helped develop the P1 and has been driving its future models, the BP23 and Senna. He also has racing experience including at Le Mans.

With the job title expert high performance test driver, Goodwin will be the most influential driver during the Valkyrie’s development. The £2.5 million hypercar is being co-developed with Red Bull Racing. Due on roads in 2019, it uses a 6.5-litre Cosworth V12 engine and electric power to produce more than 1100bhp.

Goodwin will also have input in the development of Aston Martin’s other new models, including its first SUV, the DBX, and RapidE electric car. He will report to David King and Matt Becker, Aston Martin's cheif engineer, and David King, the brand's special operations boss.

Meanwhile, Aston Martin has also hired Simone Rizzuto, former vehicle performance testing and integration lead at Maserati and Alfa Romeo, as its chief engineer for vehicle dynamics. Rizzuto reports to Max Szwaj, chief technical officer.

Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer said: “I’m thrilled to have people of Chris and Simone’s calibre join Aston Martin’s already stellar engineering and dynamics team. Their decision is a great endorsement of our future plans, while the skills and experience they bring is second to none.

“As we enter the next crucial phase in the development of our growing product and powertrain portfolios, they will make an invaluable contribution in shaping an exceptional new family of Aston Martin models."

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