Red Bull man confesses 'departure of Rob Marshall or Adrian Newey leaves gap' within the team
Red Bull's Helmut Marko admits that losing Rob Marshall and Adrian Newey has had an impact on the team as the squad gets ready for the 2025 F1 season. The Austrian team has seen a massive brain drain from the squad in the last few years. The team had been dominant in the sport from 2010 to 2013.
The regulation changes in 2014 meant that a lot of focus was turned to power units, the area where Red Bull's power unit supplier struggled. The Austrian team went from winning 4 consecutive titles from 2010 to 2013 to not winning anything from 2014 to 2020.
It wasn't until 2021 that Red Bull had a competent power unit in Honda that the team could once again challenge at the front. The team won the title with Max Verstappen that season, and that initiated a dominant run for the squad as the new regulations kicked in for 2022.
As soon as a team starts dominating, the key personnel start getting targeted by rivals as they try to build up a challenge. Red Bull was the victim of the same challenge, and the team has hence lost key personnel like Rob Marshall and Adrian Newey. Marshall's addition to McLaren has meant immediate improvements as the team went on to the title in 2024.
Talking about the departure of these key men from the squad, Red Bull's Helmut Marko admitted that while the squad is now well-positioned technically, the loss of both Marshall and Newey has surely left a gap. He told AMuS:
"Let's look at it the other way around. McLaren's rise began with the signing of Rob Marshall. He quickly found himself with a similar rear axle on the McLaren as we did. That's certainly no coincidence. When you win as much as we did, you're vulnerable to others poaching people from you. That's why we tried to broaden our technical team. I do believe we're now well positioned technically. Of course, the departure of such prominent figures as Rob Marshall or Adrian Newey leaves gaps. Both have been in the business for ages."
He added:
"They know all the tricks of the trade. They're complex automotive thinkers who are well-versed in every area. They have this knowledge of the big picture of a car. When two technical gurus suddenly leave, it takes a certain amount of time to fill those gaps. New people think differently, and that requires different structures."
Red Bull was also forced to ward off challenges from outside of F1
Helmut Marko also shared an intriguing insight into the struggles of the team to ward off advances from different industries. As was the case in the past, F1 teams like Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, and others were considered a glamorous job with tremendous perks. Now that has changed with the cost cap, and a lot of talent does not consider Formula 1 as a viable industry to work in.
Talking about the struggles to hold on to the talent, the Red Bull man told AMuS:
"New teams aren't the only problem. People are also being poached from outside. In the past, you attracted employees with the fascination of Formula 1. That has changed. The pool of available labor has shrunk. Younger people are more concerned with work-life balance. 24 races and the pressure to succeed are naturally daunting. And financially, you can't keep up anymore because of the budget cap. People in the industry earn more money for less work."
It would be interesting to see what the season holds for the team as it tries to recapture the championship it lost to McLaren last year.