Audi’s F1 Sidepods Are the Grid’s Biggest Outlier, Says McLaren Design Boss Rob Marshall

When the chief designer of the reigning constructors’ champion singles out a back-of-the-grid team’s bodywork as one of the most interesting things on the 2026 grid, it’s worth taking a look. Rob Marshall did exactly that this week, picking out the Audi F1 team’s sidepods as the standout solution among the cars built to F1’s new regulations.

The 2026 rule package was supposed to push teams toward broadly similar designs. Smaller, lighter cars, active aerodynamics, a 50/50 split between combustion and electric power, and a fully sustainable fuel formula were all baked into the regs to reset the field after the ground effect era.

The expectation in the paddock was a grid full of cars that looked different in the details but shared the same fundamental architecture. Audi has gone about things a little differently.

Why Marshall Thinks the Sayer Era Audi Looks Different

Marshall, who left Red Bull to join McLaren in 2024 and has been a large figure in the team’s recent dominance, gave his assessment of what’s caught his eye up and down the pitlane. On Audi specifically, his believes that the team has gone its own way on a part of the car most rivals appear to have converged on.

“I think the ones that are particularly interesting… across the grid, starting near the end — well, in the middle — you find the Audi sidepods, [which] are quite interesting. Clearly, they opted for a different solution, that nobody has anything similar to. It might remind you a little of a Williams from a few years ago, but I think everyone thought they would do something, probably common, but clearly they didn’t,” he said, via a number of reports.

“Aston Martin has a very interesting suspension geometry,” he added. “The rear looks quite ambitious, very interesting. You can understand the interest behind it. Their front suspension is also very interesting — it may have been inspired by something we did last year, quite similar in many aspects,” he concluded.