McLaren has made a major change in their technical department as they hire Red Bull’s Rob Marshall as their Technical Director from 2024 onwards.
Rob Marshall is a highly respected employee at Red Bull. He has been with the team since the 2006 Formula 1 season. He played a vital role along with Adrian Newey in designing the Red Bull cars to date.
McLaren has recruited Rob Marshall from Red Bull Racing, who will join as Technical Director, Engineering & Design.
Tap the link for more. ⬇️
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) May 30, 2023
Over the last decade, McLaren has not been performing like they once were. Before 2010, McLaren were one of the best teams in the sport. They have won Championships with Lewis Hamilton, Mika Hakkinen, Ayrton Senna, Allain Prost, and more. However, over the last decade, their performance has been below par. Since 2012, McLaren has won only 1 Grand Prix which came at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix.
What does the transfer of Rob Marshall mean for McLaren?
Rob Marshall has a 25-year experience in the sport of Formula 1. He was responsible for creating 6 Championship winning cars so far. There is no doubt that his talents are highly regarded by everyone in the paddock. McLaren seems to have made a very crucial move by acquiring him as their Technical Director.
Over the last few months, other teams have been trying to poach engineers from Red Bull. We saw a number of engineers leave their position at Red Bull to join Aston Martin prior to the start of the 2023 season. There have been talks about Ferrari trying to poach a few key personnel from Red Bull. Ferrari also tried to get Adrian Newey to sign with them before he extended his contract with Red Bull.
Pumped to bring Rob Marshall to McLaren from Red Bull, as our new Technical Director, Engineering & Design. With over 25 years of experience in motorsport, Rob is an F1 championship winning calibre talent, and another step forward in our plan to take the team to the top. https://t.co/KjRaNleEUy
— Zak Brown (@ZBrownCEO) May 30, 2023
The reason for the demand for Red Bull employees is due to the team’s performance over the last couple of years. Red Bull has been dominating the sport for the last couple of years. So predictably, rivals will look to hire personnel from Red Bull so they can indirectly acquire insights for their cars.
McLaren’s performance this year has been disappointing compared to the last couple of years. They already lost their Team Principal before the season started. Now they will be looking to focus on their future with Rob Marshall as their Technical Officer.
🚨BREAKING
Red Bull has announced that Chief Engineering Officer, Rob Marshall will immediately step down from his duties within the team.The highly experienced engineer will switch to McLaren on January 1, 2024.
Horner admits: “His influence will be missed”@ChrisMedlandF1 pic.twitter.com/vnJZITr3el
— RBR News 🇳🇱🇲🇽 (@redbulletin) May 30, 2023
Rob Marshall will join McLaren after the end of the 2023 season. Hence he will not be greatly involved with the design of the 2024 contender. He will be focusing more on the mid-season developments for the 2024 car and the design for the 2025 and 2026 cars.
The 2026 Formula 1 season will have a few major regulation changes which could reshuffle the order of the WCC. This major rule change will be McLaren’s window of opportunity to develop that Championship Contender. If they are caught lagging behind in 2026, it will once again be another rough road to recovery for them.