Rob Marshall might have taken secret from Red Bull to McLaren, suggests Otmar Szafnauer
Former Force India, Racing Point and Alpine team boss Otmar Szafnauer suggested that Rob Marshall might have taken important technical secrets with him to McLaren which could have helped the Woking-based outfit make huge inroads in the pecking order.
Rob Marshall joined McLaren Racing in January 2024 following a successful 17-year period with Red Bull Racing. As part of Andrea Stella's F1 Technical Executive team, Marshall is supported by Neil Houldey who is the Technical Director of the McLaren's Engineering department.
On the eve of the announcement, McLaren described Marshall's appointment as “one of the fundamental steps taken by the team to underpin their journey towards the front of the grid”.
During his tenure at Red Bull, the 56-year-old closely collaborated with chief designer Adrian Newey and played a key role in the team's title wins with Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel.
Reflecting on McLaren's recent rejuvenated form, former Aston Martin and Alpine team boss Otmar Szafnauer stated that Marshall might have significantly influenced the Woking-based outfit's technical direction.
“It’s definitely possible for one person to come in and say: ‘The secret sauce at Red Bull was this, you should be looking in this direction. That’s definitely possible.”
“When you hear things like the aero performance is unlocked through some mechanical design elements of the car – and you know what those are and how those mechanical design elements actually unlock the performance – you can point that team in that direction to start looking here.”
“It’s that direction that you then start looking in and find performance. Absolutely one person can can make that difference, especially when you have a massive rule change like we’ve had.”
Red Bull‘s anti-dive, anti-squat suspension setup was lauded as a key component of the dominant car of F1 2023 as the team produced the most successful season in history, winning 21 of a possible 22 races as Verstappen eased to a third successive World Championship. After rival teams realized the tricky suspension configuration, they started to design their own Red Bull-style solutions.
“We’re now into ground-effect cars where we weren’t before and if there was some mechanical elements of the car that others didn’t have, then it can happen.”
“I’m not saying that’s what it was, but I do think that there’s performance to be had in that area that isn’t pure aerodynamics, but is an aero enabler," concluded Szafnauer.
