The impact of “great innovator” Marshall on McLaren

McLaren had been on the rise over the second half of Formula 1’s 2023 season, but the addition of Rob Marshall to its technical management structure in January 2024 is generally considered to have been a key contributor to helping the team continue its progress.

Marshall, who was recruited from Red Bull following its wealth of success across 2022 and 2023, had a hand in the in-season development of 2024’s MCL38 before taking more of a role in the concept of this year’s MCL39, which has currently become the runaway leader in both championships.

The Briton’s approach has been lauded by former Aston Martin technical chief Dan Fallows, who worked with Marshall at Red Bull prior to joining the Silverstone outfit.

Speaking on the James Allen on F1 podcast, Fallows underlined Marshall’s strengths and suggested that his ability to work as a go-between to ensure the vehicle dynamics and aerodynamics departments were on the same page was a likely factor in McLaren’s success.

He added that McLaren’s approach to the suspension design on its MCL39, which features wishbone leg placements consistent with a pursuit of anti-dive properties, was likely influenced by Marshall’s oversight.

“We called him Uncle Rob – he’s a lovely chap,” Fallows explained. “I think that is probably part of his impact in many ways. He’s a good person to pull people together. He’s got no artifice or doesn’t play politics. 

“Sometimes – particularly with this regulation set, where it’s very important to be able to link up aerodynamics and the vehicle dynamics side of things – it’s very important to get the suspension working with the aero in the right way. He’s somebody who can help bridge the gap between departments. 

“I don’t know how well they were working before, but he’s certainly somebody who can do that. But also he’s a great innovator. So if they have particular problems, particularly on the mechanical side, he’s somebody who’s very good at coming up with creative solutions for that.

“I think we’ve seen some interesting innovations from them on the suspension, for example. And I’m not saying it was necessarily him, but it’s certainly got his name all over it. 

“I think he’s able to do that and also able just to be that figurehead, somebody to go and talk to. It’s very useful in a team that particularly is under a lot of stress. I think he probably has had an impact.”

Explaining where he thought McLaren had excelled, Fallows noted that the team’s approach to development has been consistent with an overall plan for updates; rather than chase immediate gains, McLaren has opted for a prudent approach to producing and track-testing updates in practice sessions before fully integrating them on the car.

This has been noticeable over the past two seasons; for example, McLaren registered a new front wing at the Canadian GP weekend, but used it only in practice to gather data before electing to put it on the car in Austria.

“Since they made a leap in performance in 2023, what I think has been impressive is that some of their updates have not been visually very striking, but they’ve clearly had a plan,” Fallows elaborated.

Jonathan Wheatley, Team Manager, Red Bull Racing, Rob Marshall, Chief Designer, McLaren F1 Team, David Coulthard, Presenter

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

“They’ve stuck to it and they’ve decided on a philosophy on how to improve the car and they’ve just gradually nibbled away at it and just got quicker and quicker. I know from personal experience and as people do across the grid, these regulations are very tricky to make reliable performance to put something on the car and to just know that it’ll work. But they seem to be able to do that.

“That’s probably been the most impressive thing. The fact that they’re a customer now is probably less relevant, the Mercedes power unit is very good, but I think most of the power units are, at this stage of the regulations, fairly consistently good as well. 

“They make their own gearboxes. They do enough of the car to be able to make a difference. I think that’s just what they’ve done. They’ve just consistently managed to put those upgrades on the car. They reliably work and they’ve just kept their head above everybody else.”

The half-season discussion featuring Fallows and ex-Ferrari engineer Rob Smedley on the James Allen on F1 podcast will be released at 5pm BST today.