Marshall reveals the reason for leaving Red Bull
Reflecting on his decision to leave Red Bull at the end of the 2023 F1 season, Rob Marshall has revealed that he needed to find a new motivation in his professional life.
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 Marshall's first year at McLaren, the Woking-based outfit's team boss Andrea Stella has hailed former Red Bull's engineer's input.
“Rob came with a wealth of experience, knowledge from a technical point of view, with a reputation from this point of view," started Stella.
“If anything, we have been impressed even more than what we expected because of these qualities, like the knowledge of how you design a car, especially from a car layout point of view. This is very important for 2025 and this will be very important for 2026.”
Marshall has now revealed that he received an offer from McLaren at the right time as he was seeking for a new chapter in his career after the long successful years at Red Bull.
“From a personal point of view, [McLaren] asked me at the right time. I was at a point where I thought: ‘If I don’t move to another team now, I’m probably here forever.’
“I was happy to be there forever. I really enjoyed my time at Red Bull, it was a great place to work. But then you get to the stage where you’re going stale, you’re in denial.”
He continued: "I think I was finding stuff a bit too easy, a bit too comfortable. You knew everybody, you had to get everything done. It was all a bit slick. And then the phone rings saying: ‘Do you want to leave?’ And you’re about to say: ‘No’. And for some reason, you just can’t.”
“Because at that point, you kind of go: ‘I’ve been kidding myself, I think it’s probably time to go.’”
Marshall reckoned that he left Red Bull on good terms, expressing relief that the Milton Keynes-based team managed to continue to be successful without him.
“Now I’m absolutely glad I went and I’m really happy that I left Red Bull the right way. You’d like to think no one wants to be indispensable but they’ve clearly been able to manage without me, which is great for them. You don’t want to leave anywhere in the lurch.”
