CONFIDENTIAL

HOW’S THIS FOR achievement? Anna Nicholson holds a master’s in chemical engineering and is an engineer at Nissan’s Sunderland plant – and just happens to be a world-class shot putter. The 35-yearold, who has cerebral palsy, is currently in Tokyo for the Paralympics and will compete in the F35 shot put on 2 September.

GAEL BUZYN, THE boss of Audi’s Malibu design studio, says his experience of creating the Skysphere has convinced him that digital design is the way to go. Audi’s Malibu office is entirely digital and Buzyn didn’t see the Skysphere concept in material form until it was nearly finished. “It was even better than I imagined,” he said.

VW DEVELOPMENT boss Thomas Ulbrich is leading the firm’s next over-the-air software updates for its ID models – and says he’s been inspired by chess. “In the 1990s, Garry Kasparov took on IBM’S Deep Blue,” said Ulbrich. “He won, but IBM worked on the software, came back and beat him. Software is an evolutionary product: it’s about who makes the most progress.”

MEANWHILE, VW IS mired in a currywurst crisis, after reports that it was ditching the spicy sausage and making its Wolfsburg canteens meat-free. In truth, only one canteen is going veggie. But that didn’t stop former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder weighing in. “Currywurst with fries is one of the power bars of the skilled production worker,” he said. Schröder offered no opinion on VW’S far more serious chip crisis.