Formula 1 News: Driving superior Rob Marshall designed McLarens, Norris predicts more titles
On December 12, 2025, shortly after securing his maiden Formula 1 World Drivers’ Championship with a third-place finish in Abu Dhabi—edging out Max Verstappen by just two points—Lando Norris (pictured) didn’t hold back in his post-race reflections. In a fiery message that signaled the dawn of sustained dominance, the McLaren star declared: “I will claim more F1 titles than you think.”
–by Mark Cipolloni–
It was a bold proclamation, one that positioned Norris not just as the 2025 champion, but as the driver ushering in a new era—one McLaren CEO Zak Brown has already dubbed “The Norris Era.” But what gives Norris such unshakeable certainty that multiple titles are on the horizon, rather than this being a one-off triumph?
The answer lies under the skin of the papaya-orange McLaren cars that carried him to glory: the engineering genius of Rob Marshall.
Marshall, who joined McLaren in January 2024 as Chief Designer (after initially being hired as Technical Director, Engineering and Design), brought with him a pedigree forged in Red Bull’s golden age. Over 17 years at Milton Keynes—from 2006 to 2023—he worked closely with Adrian Newey as Chief Designer and later Chief Engineering Officer. His fingerprints were all over the cars that delivered Red Bull’s first Grand Prix win and their four consecutive double championships (Drivers’ and Constructors’) with Sebastian Vettel from 2010 to 2013. He continued to play a pivotal role in the team’s later successes, including the dominant machines that powered Max Verstappen to titles in 2021-2023.
McLaren’s recruitment of Marshall was hailed as a “fundamental step” toward returning to the front of the grid, with Team Principal Andrea Stella praising his expertise in establishing “the highest technical standards” needed to design winning F1 cars. Industry insiders credit Marshall’s arrival—and his winning mindset—as a cornerstone of McLaren’s dramatic resurgence, transforming them from mid-field strugglers into championship contenders by 2025.
Norris, strapped into a car shaped by a man who has engineered seven Drivers’ World Championships worth of dominance at Red Bull, knows the machinery beneath him is built by someone who intimately understands what it takes to sustain success across regulation changes and intense rivalries. With Marshall leading the technical charge, ongoing upgrades, and a stable team environment, Norris isn’t guessing about future titles—he’s driving the proof.
His confident warning to the grid? It’s backed by the same engineering DNA that once made Red Bull untouchable. The Norris Era isn’t a hope; for Lando, it’s an inevitability.