McLaren “impressed even more” than expected by former Red Bull stalwart Marshall

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella revealed the Formula 1 constructors’ champions were “impressed even more” than expected by former Red Bull engineer Rob Marshall.

Marshall joined the Woking-based outfit as technical director, engineering & design in January after 17 years with Red Bull, with his arrival coinciding with a number of key hires in the past 18 months that have helped see McLaren step up to a race-winning squad once more, clinching a first constructors’ title since 1998 courtesy of the points collected by Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

While his reputation was enough for McLaren to get excited about, his hands-on approach and willingness to get stuck into work rather than simply watch from above left Stella and the rest of the hierarchy impressed.

“Rob came with a wealth of experience, knowledge from a technical point of view, with a reputation from this point of view,” said Stella.

“I have to say that, working with him, myself, the other technical directors, the entire technical team…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. And this is very important for 2025, and this will be very important for 2026 like, I’m sitting next to Rob here, and while I sit next to him, and I see him working on the screen.

“I said like, ‘It was really a good idea to get Rob,’ because he’s doing all the work in terms of layout for ’25, ’26 and we did miss this kind of role at McLaren before. In addition to that, Rob brings fantastic human qualities, a very positive person. Everyone enjoys working with him. He’s full of energy.

Rob Marshall, Chief Designer, McLaren F1 Team, Zak Brown, CEO, McLaren Racing

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

“You can see him in the garage, and very often he’s just laying under the car on the ground.

“Everyone appreciates his incredible knowledge and experience, but at the same time, his hands, and sometimes even his head are dirty because he was with his hands on the parts. So that’s something that we did miss before, and we are glad that now we have it in the role.”

McLaren split its technical management structure into three with Marshall in place alongside Peter Prodromou – overseeing aerodynamics – and performance TD Mark Temple.

Neil Houldey took on deputy duties to work with Marshall with Stella stating pre-season that he aimed to unleash the potential of the existing team members.

Confirming to Autosport that the plan “definitely” worked, Houldey explained: “Obviously, Pete Prodromou was already there and we had Rob Marshall come in from Red Bull. Mark Temple came in from a vehicle performance perspective, and both him and I had been at McLaren for a number of years.

“We’d already worked with Pete well, and Rob came in and he’s such a collaborative guy to work with and just wants the best for the team and for everyone. Actually, the way it’s worked has been really positive and I think it’s shown the entire technical team how we can all work together, different personalities, different specialities, but actually it’s brought everyone together.

Zak Brown, McLaren Racing CEO, David Sanchez, Rob Marshall, Andrea Stella, McLaren Team Principal

Photo by: McLaren

“I think the way that you can divide up the work, you’ve got Andrea as a guide, you’ve got us meeting together as a group. It just enables you to focus on your area that much more and ensure that the performance is coming in your area.

“So now I think from… if you’re going to credit, I think it’s something you can definitely give Andrea credit for, realising that that actually was a better way to structure the McLaren racing technical team.”

Additional reporting by Jonathan Noble and Filip Cleeren