McLaren raids Red Bull with big appointment

The McLaren F1 team has continued with its fundamental restructuring by obtaining Red Bull’s head of engineering, Rob Marshall.

Marshall spent nearly 20 years behind the scenes at the Milton Keynes factory, and will now join the Woking based McLaren group at the start of January, and has been stood down from his role at Red Bull effective immediately.

He’ll join the papaya technical executive team as technical director, replacing James Key, and will work alongside Peter Prodromou and David Sanchez, reporting directly to team principal Andrea Stella.

Along with Stella replacing Andreas Seidl, Sanchez was also a new addition to the team after leaving Ferrari as its head of vehicle concept.

Marshall will have his work cut out in helping to turn McLaren back into an F1 powerhouse, but all the right puzzle pieces are being put into place, which includes the talented young driving line-up of Australia’s Oscar Piastri and Brit Lando Norris.

Marshall (centre) has been an integral part of Red Bull’s success, and will add a wealth of knowledge as McLaren new technical director in 2024

Alongside Adrian Newey, Marshall has been a key figure in driving the Red Bull success story, and Stella is delighted to have him help shape McLaren’s future, as Marshall arrives with a big arsenal of knowledge.

“I am delighted to welcome Rob to McLaren, with more than 25 years of experience in motorsport, he will arrive with an excellent technical background and a lot of experience,” Stella said. 

“His career and his track record at Red Bull speak for themselves, and this appointment is one of the fundamental steps in the restructuring of McLaren. 

“He is an essential addition to allow us to find the outposts. Our ambition is to compete in the championships, but recent seasons have not translated into enough progress on the track.

“For several months we have been working hard to reverse the trend through a global approach and the recruitment of highly qualified people. Rob’s arrival is part of this approach and will strengthen it.”

Piastri achieved his second points finish in just his seventh F1 race at Monavo, despite the under developed nature of the McLaren MCL60

Despite what would be a tense nature of events behind the scenes at Milton Keynes with his immediate resignation, Red Bull boss Christian Horner thanked Marshall publicly for his contribution.

“We would like to thank Rob for everything he has done for the team over the past 17 years,” Horner said.

“His work on the generation of cars that gave us four incredible championship one-twos between 2010 and 2013 was truly remarkable.

“In the years since he has continued to be a key figure in the team and in 2016 he took on the wider role of Director of Engineering which saw him involved in other projects in the company. 

“We will miss his influence, but once again we thank him for all he has done and wish him the best in his new role.”

The F1 season resumes this weekend in Barcelona, Spain, on June 2-4, as Piastri and Norris hope to capitalise on their double point haul at Monaco where they achieved a P9-10 finish.

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