In the last two years, Red Bull has seen a significant purge of its backroom technical staff, the most notable being Adrian Newey.
The legendary designer left the team after 18 years last season and will be joining rivals Aston Martin in March to help them work on their 2026 car.
Newey’s departure followed another high-profile exit in Rob Marshall last year, who made the switch to McLaren and immediately oversaw their impressive turnaround in fortunes.
Marshall has been credited with developing the ‘secret sauce’ to McLaren’s car, with them ending last season with the best package. Much of the rear suspension on the MCL38 was redesigned last year, while the team also managed to get ahead of Red Bull in the development race.
There were questions over why Marshall wanted to leave Red Bull at the height of their dominance, especially after the poor start from McLaren in 2023. In an interview with GPBlog.com, he opened up on the reasons why he decided to make the switch.
Rob Marshall ‘absolutely glad’ he left Red Bull for McLaren
Marshall has an impressive track record in F1, having helped Red Bull to seven titles while he was there and also won titles with Renault when they were successful with Fernando Alonso.
The engineer has explained that he felt things were too easy when Red Bull was winning everything, and shed light on his reasons to move to McLaren.
”I think I was finding stuff a bit too easy, a bit too comfortable. You knew everybody, you had to get everything done. It was all a bit slick. And I’m thinking, well, you know, five, six, seven years, that’d be happier, then I retire. And then the phone rings saying, ‘do you want to leave?’. And you’re about to say, ‘no’. And for some reason, you just can’t,” said Marshall.
”Because at that point, you kind of go, ‘yeah, I’ve been kidding myself. I think it’s probably time to go’. And at that point, you’re going. If there’s any doubt, you’re going. I don’t think you can turn back. If you’ve thought about it long and hard. If you think long and hard about leaving, then you’re gone.”
”Now I’m absolutely glad I went, and I’m really happy that I left Red Bull the right way. You’d like to think no one wants to be indispensable but they’ve clearly been able to manage without me, which is great for them.”
Rob Marshall has been McLaren’s most significant signing
There is a lot that contributed to McLaren’s recent success, but signing Marshall has been their biggest coup from a top team.
McLaren emerged as title contenders this year with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, with them winning their first Constructors’ Championship since 1998 despite not having the fastest car to stop off with.
The upgrades made in conjunction with Marshall spearheading the design team and the new wind tunnel all show how much of an influence he has made since joining them.
Marshall said the thing that has impressed him most about McLaren is how everything correlates well between the wind tunnel and simulations, meaning any upgrades they put on the car work.
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