Sacked F1 team boss reckons McLaren received Red Bull’s ‘secret sauce’ to extract pace

McLaren is only 42 points behind Red Bull in the 2024 Constructors Championship.

Sacked F1 team boss reckons McLaren received Red Bull’s ‘secret sauce’ to extract pace

McLaren and Otmar Szafnauer (images via IMAGO)

Red Bull began the ground effect era with an unprecedented lead over its rivals. Though some teams often competed for wins with the Austrian giant, the team has been on a roll in F1. However, this soon changed during the 2024 season as the Milton Keynes-based squad soon lost its edge over the rivals and is now competing to save its lead in the championship. This gain in performance at McLaren is speculated by Otmar Szafnauer to be due to the poaching of members from the Red Bull factory.

Recently, McLaren hired Rob Marshall from Red Bull’s camp of staff ahead of the current season and became the chief designer within the team. His taking up of role in office coincided with McLaren’s resurgence on the grid as the team soon emerged as the fastest on paper.

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However, this coincidence did not go unnoticed as ousted team principal Otmar Szafnauer raised an eyebrow regarding the sudden jump in MCL38’s performance.

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It’s definitely possible for one person to come in and say: The secret sauce at Red Bull was this, you should be looking in this direction. That’s definitely possible. When you hear things like the aero performance is unlocked through some mechanical design elements of the car – and you know what those are and how those mechanical design elements actually unlock the performance – you can point that team in that direction to start looking here.
Otmar Szafnauer said on a podcast with James Allen

The Romanian-American asserted that Marshall’s arrival could be the secret behind McLaren’s pace jump. Furthermore, he reckoned that the British engineer would have revealed secrets of Red Bull at Woking which would have helped engineers change the development direction and get the MCL38 on the right path.

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Andrea Stella reveals mindset within McLaren that helps them grow

While such allegations are normal within the paddock, it’s quite unusual when engineers change teams and have a significant impact on the team’s performance. On the other hand, Andrea Stella focused on the team’s operational strategies and gave a glimpse of the mindset of the team.

McLaren's Andrea Stella
Andrea Stella (via IMAGO)

The Italian has a calm demeanor within the paddock, which has transcended its way into the team.

We say at McLaren internally, what's important is that we keep building, building, building and building. And sometimes when you have a tree falling, even if it's very loud, actually what's important is to think about the forest growing, which is silent - and sometimes, this tree falling gives you so much information to help the forest grow. 
Andrea Stella said in an interview with RacingNews365

The 53-year-old claimed that he emphasized the team growing together. Though he admitted that mistakes do creep in once in a while they act as an important lesson for them which helps them reevaluate their strategies going forward.

Despite Stella’s accountable attitude, the team found itself on the knife edge in Hungary. Thus, they would like to focus on teamwork heading ahead as they trail Red Bull by 42 points and would like to win their first championship in decades.

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