Horner after Marshall's departure: 'Normally we tell someone to f*ck off'

Usually it goes like this: an F1 team employee announces his intention to switch to a competitor and immediately he is escorted to the exit of his current employer. Far too scared as the team is that the person leaving will take (even more) secrets with him or her. In the case of Rob Marshall, who is soon to move from Red Bull to McLaren, it all went slightly differently.

For no less than seventeen years, Rob Marshall was a more than a valued colleague at Red Bull Racing. The Brit played a crucial role in the Austrian team's first period of success, but in recent years he was mainly working in the background. So recently, Red Bull and McLaren announced that Marshall is switching to the latter team.

Marshall wanted to get back into Formula 1

Christian Horner previously praised Marshall but understands his departure. "After 17 years, he got an offer, a significant offer from McLaren," the Red Bull team boss told GPblog and others. "And whilst he still had a period of time left on his contract, he was keen to go back into Formula One. And so, we came to an agreement with him and negotiated a deal with Zak [Brown] that worked for everybody."

There was no question of an abrupt end to the tenure. "And so we did a little thing for him at the last debrief, where usually when somebody leaves the team, we tell them to f*ck off. With Rob, it's a little bit different. You know, he's a good guy. And he's just going on to a new challenge. But it's a little bit like Manchester United, you know, if you look at their team, how it evolved over a period of time. Eric Cantona still wasn't playing 17 years later," Horner said, indicating that staff leaving is part of running a team.