Tag: Rob Marshall

Cost cap makes it harder to keep top talent – Horner

The cost cap restrictions are making it harder for top teams to keep certain talents from being enticed elsewhere, admits Red Bull team principal Christian Horner. Red Bull’s chief engineering officer Rob Marshall (pictured top, center) will join …

The cost cap restrictions are making it harder for top teams to keep certain talents from being enticed elsewhere, admits Red Bull team principal Christian Horner.

Red Bull’s chief engineering officer Rob Marshall (pictured top, center) will join McLaren at the start of 2024, taking on the role of technical director of engineering and design. McLaren also recently signed Ferrari’s David Sanchez while Aston Martin has attracted a number of senior personnel in recent seasons, something Horner says is a direct result of the cost cap making it tougher to keep hold of team members.

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“Yeah, of course it does,” Horner said. “You can’t carry anybody within the team, and I think everybody has to warrant their place within the cap. Rob was focused on other projects in recent years. The offer that McLaren made is probably half their cap! So you can’t blame him for wanting to go and do that.”

And Horner admits Marshall will be missed by Red Bull even though he’d moved away from a full-time Formula 1 focus, and that the team felt it owed him a positive send-off after so long in Milton Keynes.

“Rob has been with us for 17 years, and he’s been an instrumental player in the building of Red Bull Racing. He was able to accommodate things mechanically within the car like batteries inside the gearbox with the KERS cars back in the 2009, ’10, ’11, ’12, ’13 era. He played a significant role within the team. But over recent years, he’s moved onto other projects and hasn’t been on the mainstream of Formula 1.

“After 17 years, he had an offer – a significant offer – from McLaren. And whilst he still had a period of time left on his contract, he was keen to go back into Formula 1. And so we came to an agreement with him and negotiated a deal with Zak (Brown) that worked for everybody.

“So we did a little thing for him at the last debrief, where usually somebody leaves the team, we tell them to f*** off! With Rob, it’s a little bit different. He’s a good guy. He’s just going onto a new challenge. It’s a little bit like Manchester United. If you look at their team and how it evolved over a period of time, Eric Cantona still wasn’t playing 17 years later.”

McLaren signs Red Bull veteran Marshall for senior technical role

McLaren has announced the signing of former Red Bull chief engineering officer Rob Marshall to the new position of technical director of engineering and design. Marshall has been at Red Bull for 17 years, working his way up the engineering ranks to …

McLaren has announced the signing of former Red Bull chief engineering officer Rob Marshall to the new position of technical director of engineering and design.

Marshall has been at Red Bull for 17 years, working his way up the engineering ranks to lead that department in recent years, winning six drivers’ championships and five constructors’ titles in the process. After a recent restructuring that was announced by McLaren under team principal Andrea Stella, Marshall has been secured to work above Neil Houldey, and will form a three-man Formula 1 technical executive team alongside Peter Prodromou and David Sanchez when he joins on 1 January 2024.

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“I am incredibly pleased that Rob will be joining McLaren,” Stella said. “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.

“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.

“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.”

Marshall’s arrival at the start of 2024 will come at the same time as Sanchez, who is due to join from Ferrari. At present, McLaren is sixth in the constructors’ championship, 18 points adrift of Alpine after finishing ninth and tenth in Monaco.

Red Bull itself praised Marshall for the impact he has made in his time as chief designer and then as chief engineering officer, and confirmed he will step back from his current role with immediate effect before making the move to McLaren.

“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 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.”