In the silly season, there are always rumors of transfers in personnel within F1 teams, not just in terms of drivers but also top engineers who constantly look to shift teams. Amidst all of this, Helmut Marko has called out the poachers that roam around the paddock trying to snatch away the smartest minds by providing huge sums of money – about $3,000,000 in the case of Rob Marshall, one of the top aides of Adrian Newey.
There have been three major transfers in the last two years and two of them involved Red Bull engineers who shifted base to rival teams. Red Bull lost Dan Fallows to Aston Martin at the end of 2021, who joined the Silverstone-based outfit as their technical director.
The doctor is mad that they took Rob but he won’t say it… 👀
Credits: Business F1 pic.twitter.com/SjZESponc6
— FastestDNF (@dnf_fastest) July 31, 2023
The other major loss that Red Bull suffered was Rob Marshall, who will be joining McLaren in 2024 in a top technical role. The common thread that connects all of these signings was that it involved lot of money.
Helmut Marko rues the loss of Rob Marshall
According to a recent report by BusinessF1, Helmut Marko called out the ‘people poachers’ who roam around the paddock trying to recruit big-shot engineers from the top teams, namely Mercedes, Red Bull, and Ferrari. Marko explained that this is being done on a level like never before.
This is how Red Bull lost Rob Marshall, who was one of their top engineers. Marshall spent 17 years with the Milton-Keynes-based outfit, most famously serving as their Chief Engineering Officer. The British engineer worked alongside Adrian Newey to create title-winning cars from 2010 to 2013 as well as in 2021 and 2022.
With the departure of top engineer Rob Marshall to McLaren recently announced, Red Bull boss Christian Horner acknowledges that retaining staff under the budget cap can be a challenge.
Horner said: “You have to make sure it’s not a race to the bottom. The problem is that you…
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However, Marko is not too worried about all of this. As per BusinessF1, he said, “We can cope with departures. We have a solid foundation of young people. We are well positioned at the top and the bottom.” He added that nothing at Red Bull depends on any one person.
Marko trusts the Red Bull trio
Helmut Marko went on to talk about the importance of the main figureheads of Red Bull. He explained that the trio of himself, Christian Horner, and Adrian Newey gives Red Bull a major advantage.
He explained that Horner has been with the team for 19 years, and Newey for 17 years. Therefore, they have a very intricate understanding of the functioning of the team.
However, Marko also acknowledged that all of this does not ensure that they will be a top team forever. He mentioned how they lost ground to Mercedes when F1 brought in new regulations in 2014. However, Red Bull are back at the top again, and will want to remain there as long as they can.
