F1 News: No one will catch the Rob Marshall designed McLaren

McLaren’s obvious early dominance in 2025 can still be overcome – within as few as five races. That’s the claim of delusional Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko, who forgets McLaren will be rolling out more Rob Marshall upgrades.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Marko was speaking after the checkered flag in Melbourne, where despite a close finish in tricky conditions Lando Norris became the first non-Max Verstappen world championship leader in years.

**It wasn’t Adrian Newey who made the Red Bull fast – it was Rob Marshall, who is now with McLaren**. Within months of Marshall becoming Chief Designer at McLaren last year, the car became unbeatable, and it’s still unbeatable. Second placed Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing Race winner Lando Norris of Great Britain and McLaren Rob Marshall, Chief Designer of McLaren and Third placed George Russell of Great Britain and Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team on the podium during the F1 Grand Prix of Australia at Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit on March 16, 2025 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)

Mercedes’ George Russell, also on the podium, doubts the Rob Marshall designed McLaren can be beaten.

“If you have a six-tenths lead at the beginning of the year, nobody overcomes that over the course of the year,” he said.

Heads are being scratched at Red Bull and elsewhere about precisely how McLaren has managed to produce a car with far greater superiority not only in getting heat in the tires, but then resisting degradation. Were they cheating and adding a water mist inside the tires again?

“This is the greatest superiority I’ve even seen in a racing car in this particular area,” said Red Bull team boss Christian Horner.

“Normally, if you light the tires up early, you pay for it in wear. But this McLaren is not like that.”

Red Bull is suspicious of McLaren’s wing flexibility, but Mercedes boss Toto Wolff insists: “It certainly has nothing to do with that.

“It’s not pure performance,” he added. “They manage to really attack the tire, but when we do that, we cook them.”

Oracle Red Bull Racing Team Principal Christian Horner talks with Rob Marshall, Chief Designer at McLaren on the grid before the F1 Grand Prix of Monaco at Circuit de Monaco on May 26, 2024 in Monte-Carlo, Monaco. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images) // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool

Marko is confident Red Bull can still challenge for the 2025 title.

“It’s all about maximizing in this period,” he said. “After 8 to 10 laps, we see our tire degradation really start to happen and then McLaren is a second faster.

“But we hope that we are able to close that gap with them over a maximum of five races. We have some other problems, but the tire wear is the biggest problem.

“We know what we are working on, and we are working hard,” Marko added. “In three to five races we can hopefully solve it. As I said, our tires need to warm up faster and then last longer. We have an upgrade in the pipeline, but it will take a little time.”

In the meantime, Marko says Red Bull and Max Verstappen will try to keep the pressure on.

“Anything is possible when you keep the pressure on,” he said. “Because it wasn’t just (Oscar) Piastri who made mistakes – Norris almost spun too.

“They are two very strong drivers, and the car is almost perfect, but this is only the first race of 24, and we haven’t given up yet.”