Former Marquee Red Bull Engineer Explains Why He Left Red Bull for McLaren

The last couple of seasons have seen big names leave the roster at Red Bull. While Adrian Newey’s departure for Aston Martin last year was the headline event, the dominoes of key personnel leaving the team began all the way back in 2023 — with Rob Marshall choosing to work with McLaren instead.

Since his arrival at the Woking-based team, as their Chief Designer, the Briton has had a crucial impact on the team’s competitiveness on track. He formed an integral part of a three-pronged technical structure including existing technical director Peter Prodomou and former Ferrari man David Sanchez.

While Sanchez left early last season, Marshall carried on with his new team and bolstered their technical program to put together a solid car on track. This culminated with McLaren winning their first Constructors’ trophy since 1998.

But what made Marshall end his 17-year tenure with the Milton Keynes-based team in the first place?

“McLaren asked me at the right time. I was at a point where I thought: ‘If I don’t switch to another team now, I’ll probably be here 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 become blasé,” he told PlanetF1 as quoted by Formule1.nl.

ℹ️ The MCL39 will be the first McLaren car where Rob Marshall will be involved since day 1 of the development

The Chief Designer joined from Red Bull in January 2024. pic.twitter.com/zDKjnGM7fb

— McLaren News | (@McLarenF1_News) February 17, 2025

Marshall’s departure would have made a big dent in the engineering department of the Bulls. Since arriving at the team in the 2006 season, he worked with Newey to design many of the team’s championship winning cars.

In particular, he’s been named as a big contributor to Sebastian Vettel’s run of four-consecutive titles between 2010 and 2013. Now, Marshall will be keen to emulate the same effort at McLaren to help Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri clinch the drivers’ crown.

McLaren on the up, and Red Bull’s decline in 2025

Marshall’s arrival at the Woking-based team has coincided with the team’s resurgence in the sport. Going into the 2025 season, McLaren are being touted as the favorites to lift both, the Constructors’ and Driver’s titles.

On the other end of the spectrum, McLaren’s rise has coincided with a steep decline in Red Bull’s competitiveness. The last 14 rounds of the 2024 season saw the Bulls win only twice, courtesy of Max Verstappen, which led to them finishing third in the Constructors’ standings — their worst result since the 2019 season.

After the team revealed that the RB20 will be carried forward as a concept onto their 2025 challenger, many expected the gremlins of last year to persist as well. This has been the case, as far as their running during last week’s pre-season testing in Bahrain showed.

In fact, Technical Director, Pierre Wache issued a disappointing summary of their competitiveness. “I am not as happy as I could be because the car did not respond as we wanted at certain moments, but it is going in the right direction,” he explained.

This would mean that Verstappen, and his relatively inexperienced teammate, Liam Lawson, are likely to struggle throughout this season.