McLaren team principal Andrea Stella feels luring Rob Marshall from Red Bull was ‘an unmissable opportunity’.

Marshall, who has spent the last 17 years at Red Bull, the most recent of those as chief engineering officer, will join McLaren on January 1 as technical director, engineering and design.

Remarkably for Red Bull, despite previous annoyance at seeing key personnel leave for other teams, such as Dan Fallows to Aston Martin, Christian Horner was only too willing to bid Marshall a fond farewell.

Horner claims Marshall was lured to McLaren courtesy of “a significant offer” – joking it was half of the Woking-based team’s budget cap – but his loyal service engendered a decent sent off.

Crucial for Horner and Red Bull was the fact Marshall has been engaged in projects away from mainstream F1, seemingly suggesting the knowledge he will be taking with him would not represent a direct threat from next season.

For Stella, Marshall is the latest piece in his personnel puzzle following a recent reshuffle that resulted in the departure of James Key as technical director. Key will join Alfa Romeo later this year.

“Rob was very keen to join McLaren,” said Stella. “He understood perfectly our journey, our ambition.

“I think he also understood that he could be a fundamental player in trying to do something important, like taking McLaren to victory, so strong motivation from his side.

“He has also been instrumental in creating such a strong technical department at Red Bull, and he has a unique level of experience and know-how in terms of engineering and design of Formula 1 cars.

“At Red Bull, they know very well the role Rob played over time, and I think this invokes respect for people.

“From what I could judge from the outside, I saw this level of respect from Red Bull to Rob which was good to see.

“At the moment, we are just very pleased and excited Rob is keen to join our journey to take McLaren to the front of the grid.”

Marshall’s announcement came as a surprise as when McLaren confirmed its technical restructure, it announced Neil Houldey would take on the newly created role of TD for engineering and design, a position now handed to Marshall.

Explaining the situation, Stella said: “Neil has always been a part of the process. He’s been in the conversation. He has actually played as a team player in this process.

“When we told Neil that we had this opportunity, which was quite unmissable, we elaborated together on the solution.

“There’s so much to do in terms of engineering and design, to create the right standards, to design the fastest car in Formula 1, that actually we thought this is a very powerful combination – Rob, more of the technical authority, and Neil running more of the day-to-day activities within the department.

“So definitely Neil was in the process, a very constructive process.”