What impact is the former Red Bull chief engineer having at McLaren?

After a long gardening leave, Rob Marshall and David Sanchez were finally allowed to join McLaren from this season. McLaren CEO Zak Brown is very happy with the performance of the new team members and talks about the impact they are having on the team.

We see it happen often: Formula 1 teams try to steal key employees from another team. In recent years, McLaren managed to pull in Rob Marshall, former Red Bull chief engineer, and David Sanchez, Ferrari chief engineer. After about a year, the men were finally allowed to start work.

Brown very happy with new recruits

In Australia, McLaren CEO Zak Brown was asked about what impact Marshall and Sanchez have had on the team. Brown is very pleased with the first few months working with the two. "Well, they've got a lot of experience, a lot of energy, a lot of know-how. They've won a lot of races and championships." Marshall was with Red Bull from 2006-2023. Sanchez was at Ferrari from 2012-2023.

"But we've got a big racing team," Brown continued. "All of these racing teams are big now. So they're adding value and kind of turbocharging what's already an excellent team because we see what the team was capable of doing the second half of last year. So I think they just bring some added energy, experience, some knowledge of obviously what two very strong teams have been doing. And so that knowledge and know-how is something that kind of feeds into the organisation. And then they're great personalities that bring a lot of energy to the team."