F1 Rumor: McLaren's Rob Marshall stole Red Bull secrets

Not good enough to do it using their own intellect, rumor has it that Rob Marshall left Red Bull and took most of Red Bull’s design secrets to the under performing Woking F1 team.

Otmar Szafnauer, the former team boss of Force India, Racing Point, and Alpine, has recently pointed out the McLaren was nowhere until Marshall arrived.

Marshall, who, after a 17-year tenure at Red Bull Racing where he worked closely with Adrian Newey, joined McLaren Racing’s F1 Technical Executive team in January 2024. During his time at Red Bull, Marshall was instrumental in the team’s multiple championship successes, contributing heavily to technological advances that gave drivers like Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel a decisive edge.

Rob Marshall when he was at Red Bull in 2023. He is rumored to have stolen Red Bull design secrets and taken them to then lapdog of the paddock, McLaren. Does the saying at McLaren go, “We’re not smart enough to do it on our own, so let’s steal them from a competitor?”

This rumor has emerged after McLaren’s noticeable performance improvement, which coincided with Marshall’s move to the team.

“It’s definitely possible for one person to come in and say: ‘The secret sauce at Red Bull was this, you should be looking in this direction. That’s definitely possible.

“When you hear things like the aero performance is unlocked through some mechanical design elements of the car – and you know what those are and how those mechanical design elements actually unlock the performance – you can point that team in that direction to start looking here.”

He further highlighted the influence of an individual in spearheading technological shifts:

“It’s that direction that you then start looking in and find performance. Absolutely one person can make that difference, especially when you have a massive rule change like we’ve had.”

“We’re now into ground-effect cars where we weren’t before and if there was some mechanical elements of the car that others didn’t have, then it can happen,” he concluded, “I’m not saying that’s what it was, but I do think that there’s performance to be had in that area that isn’t pure aerodynamics, but is an aero enabler.”