McLaren continue rebuild with key Red Bull figure joining in technical director role

Sam Cooper
Rob Marshall, Chief Engineering Officer of Red Bull Racing. Suzuka, Japan. October 2022

Rob Marshall moves across to McLaren after 16 years at Red Bull.

McLaren have acquired the services of Rob Marshall who will join the team as technical director of engineering and design in January 2024.

Marshall previously spent 17 years with Red Bull as chief engineering officer and will be working alongside Peter Prodromou and David Sanchez whilst reporting directly to team principal Andrea Stella.

Neil Houldey will also move to the newly created role of deputy technical director which McLaren say will complete the senior technical structure.

Andrea Stella said: “I am incredibly pleased that Rob will be joining McLaren. With over 25 years working in motorsport, Rob comes to us with a wealth of expertise and experience, elevated by his tenure and track record at Red Bull Racing. Rob’s appointment is one of the fundamental steps and a natural fit to aid the team’s journey to get back to our winning ways.

Marshall first entered Formula 1 in 1994 when he joined Benetton as a race engineer, working for the team until its takeover by Rneault. Continuing with the French constructor, Marshall eventually became head of mechanical design and his work, particularly the development of the innovative mass damper system, helped the team to its first Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship titles with Fernando Alonso in 2005.

He left Renault to join the newly-formed Red Bull team in 2006 where he worked as chief designer alongside Adrian Newey. In 2016, he was promoted to chief engineering officer and will leave this role at the end of the 2023 season.

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner praised Marshall for his work since joining Red Bull and wished him the best in his new role.

Horner said: “We would like to thank Rob for everything he has done for the Team over the past 17 years. His work on the generation of cars that gave us four incredible championship doubles between 2010 and 2013 was truly outstanding. In the years since he has continued to be a key figure at the Team and in 2016 took on the broader role of Chief Engineering Officer which has seen him involved in other projects across the business. His influence will be missed but once again we thank him for all he has done and wish him the very best in his new role.”

Stella continued: “We are a team with the ambition of fighting for championships, but over the last couple of seasons we have not shown a steady upward trend from an on-track competitiveness point of view. Over the last few months, we have worked towards inverting this trend. The approach we have adopted is comprehensive and is based on strengthening the Team from a people and expertise point of view, along with the ongoing projects to upgrade technology and infrastructure that will shortly come to fruition.

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“People and culture are our most important resource. We have recently invested and worked towards developing and empowering the internal talents available at McLaren, and we already perceive and measure the positive impact. In parallel, we have been strengthening our roster by bringing new talents on board. The list was already strong and encouraging, and the addition of a high-end and skilled individual like Rob will further consolidate our ability to establish the highest technical standards at McLaren and be in condition to design winning F1 cars.

“We look forward to welcoming Rob in the near future.”

Shortly after the start of the 2023 season, McLaren announced a shake up of its technical group which saw former technical director James Key lose his job and instead be replaced by a committee comprised of three separate divisions.

Veteran McLaren chief Peter Prodromou took the role of technical director for aerodynamics while former Ferrari man David Sanchez will take on the role of technical director for car concept and performance. Like Marshall, he too will be unable to join the team until 1st January 2024 due to gardening leave.