Zak Brown Hides Behind the Man Responsible for Max Verstappen and Co.’s Glory To Justify His Latest Catch

For McLaren, one of the most successful teams in Formula 1 history, the last ten years have not gone well. The team hasn’t had any victories aside from the remarkable performance of Daniel Ricciardo at the Italian GP. In addition, their declining performance has drawn severe criticism from fans, who even demanded that the team’s CEO, Zak Brown should leave the Woking-based group. However, with his most recent grab, the American is now hiding behind the man who brought Max Verstappen and company to prominence.

In recent years, McLaren in particular has only experienced decline; whether it was Honey Badger who suffered in the MCL36 or Oscar Piastri who is struggling in an uncompetitive MCL60. However, in Spain, Lando Norris‘ impressive qualifying performance raised McLaren supporters’ desires, but a collision with Hamilton ruined what could have been an excellent day. As Norris experienced yet another nightmare in which he was unable to advance past P17.

Prior to the Spanish GP, the woking-based team hired Red Bull’s top designer Rob Marshall to succeed James Key as team director in January of  2024,  since Key will be moving to Audi. Since becoming the Milton Keynes squad’s chief designer in 2006, Marshal has worked with Adrian Newey to assist the team in winning back-to-back four championships during the time of Sebastian Vettel from 2010-2013.

Furthermore, Christian Horner claims that he can “mechanically accommodate things.” Marshall also helped Max Verstappen win back-to-back titles after he expanded his responsibilities in the newly created Chief Engineering Officer position. This implied that he was significantly involved in the newly launched Red Bull Powertrains project.

Zak Brown was captured explaining his recent catch while speaking with Sky Sports. He said, “I think his results speak for themselves. Adrian Newey has nothing but great things to say about Rob, and we all know Adrian knows what he’s doing. He gave him a good endorsement.”

Later while justifying the appeal to work in McLaren, Brown added, “Red Bull are a fantastic team so for him to leave there after so much success, I think shows the excitement that he believes we’ve got coming here at McLaren.”

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Andrea Stella, who, according to Zak Brown, was the driving force behind the team’s restructuring, has also expressed his delight about the potential influence Marshall can have when he joins the team.

Following Zak Brown’s defense, Andrea Stella discusses the potential the Red Bull man can have

We noticed a quick change in the team shortly after Andrea Stella started working as a new team principal. In addition, the team was able to get Ferrari veteran David Sanchez as technical director for car concept and performance, and Peter Prodromou as technical director for aerodynamics. And it now appears that Rob Marshall will be putting an end to their quest as he will be the one to fill the position of Technical Director for design and engineering.

Andre Stella responded when queried about the addition of Marshall to the team and what else the Red Bull man could offer. As per Formula1.com, he said, “We know that Rob has been instrumental in establishing such a strong technical department at Red Bull, so that’s what we expect he will bring to McLaren.” 

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With Rob Marshall taking over do we suppose the man can change the fortunes of the Woking-based team?