Szafnauer: “Rob Marshall may have brought Red Bull’s secret recipe to McLaren” | FormulaPassion.it

The figure of Rob Marshall

At Red Bull from 2006 to 2023 as head of the engineering department, Rob Marshall worked closely with Adrian Newey. His move to McLaren made official in January 2024 It was therefore surprising, but also understandable, as the Englishman was given an even more important role in his new team, that of chief designer.

We are talking about a figure who is probably not so well known to the general public, but who enjoys a great esteem from industry insidersso much so that Helmut Marko recently linked McLaren’s great recovery to the arrival of the former Red Bull driver.

Szafnauer is with Marko

The Austrian consultant of Red Bull was of the same opinion. Otmar Szafnauer, – former team principal of Force India, Racing Point and Alpine -, who underlined how even a single individual can turn the fortunes of a team around, specifically in reference to Marshall: “It is certainly possible that a person could come along and say: ‘This was the secret recipe of Red Bull and you should go in this direction.’ When you hear that certain mechanical elements unlock aerodynamic performance and you know what these elements are and how they modify performance, you can direct development there.”

In the interview given to the channel YouTube of James Allen, Szafnauer then continued: “I absolutely believe that a single person can make a differenceespecially when there is a massive rule change. I’m not saying that this has happened, but I think that in that area you can get performance not only in pure aerodynamics, but also in support of aerodynamics.”