Stella: Impressed with Rob Marshall more than expected

Marshall joined McLaren in January of 2024, and while that was too late for him to have a role in the inception of the team's pace-setting MCL38, he was able to have input in the upgrades that were brought to it later.

While Red Bull's RB20 was the fastest car at the start of the season, an upgrade to the McLaren MCL38 at the Miami Grand Prix transformed it into the car to beat, and while Lando Norris ultimately failed to beat Max Verstappen in the 2024 Formula 1 drivers' championship, McLaren beat Red Bull in the constructors' standings.

Stella is quite impressed with Marshall and the job he has been doing, claiming the former Red Bull engineer has exceeded expectations.

He said, quote by Motorsport.com: "Rob came with a wealth of experience, knowledge from a technical point of view, with a reputation from this point of view.

"I have to say that, working with him, myself, the other technical directors, the entire technical team…if anything, we have been impressed even more than what we expected.

"Because of these qualities, like the knowledge of how you design a car, especially from a car layout point of view. And this is very important for 2025, and this will be very important for 2026 like, I'm sitting next to Rob here, and while I sit next to him, and I see him working on the screen.

"I said like, 'It was really a good idea to get Rob,' because he's doing all the work in terms of layout for '25, '26 and we did miss this kind of role at McLaren before. In addition to that, Rob brings fantastic human qualities, a very positive person.

"Everyone enjoys working with him. He's full of energy. You can see him in the garage, and very often he's just laying under the car on the ground.

"Everyone appreciates his incredible knowledge and experience, but at the same time, his hands, and sometimes even his head are dirty because he was with his hands on the parts.

"So that's something that we did miss before, and we are glad that now we have it in the role," the McLaren boss concluded.