Rob Marshall leaves Red Bull to join McLaren as technical director for F1 2024

Reigning world champion team Red Bull announced today that Chief Engineering Officer Rob Marshall is to leave the team at the end of 2023, bringing to an end almost two decades as a member of the Team’s technical department.

The 55-year-old engineer will step back from his current role with immediate effect and join the McLaren Formula 1 team next January, where he will become Technical Director, Engineering and Design.

Joining Red Bull Racing from Renault whom he helped to the 2005 Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship, Marshall took on the role of Chief Designer which he held at the Milton Keynes-based outfit from 2006 until 2016.

In 2016 after a decade as Chief Designer, Marshall took a wider role across the group with the newly created position of Chief Engineering Officer.

Paying tribute to Rob’s time at the Team, Oracle Red Bull Racing Team Principal and CEO Christian 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.”

At McLaren, Marshall will fulfil the role of Technical Director which will sit within the McLaren's Technical Executive team, alongside Peter Prodromou and David Sanchez, reporting directly to Team Principal Andrea Stella.

The Tauton-born engineer will be supported by Neil Houldey in the newly created role of Deputy Technical Director, Engineering & Design, to complete the senior technical structure.

McLaren's Team Principal Andrea Stella commented: “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.

“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," Stella concluded.