The 2024 season wasn’t just tumultuous for Red Bull on track. On top of the issues the team faced with the RB20’s deteriorating performance, the Milton Keynes-based team also had to deal with big-name departures in their operational group.
Legendary designer, Adrian Newey and Sporting Director, Jonathan Wheatley both left the team last year. With big shoes to fill, Red Bull decided to internally promote their man, Pierre Wache to take Newey’s place.
According to Dutch F1 commentator, Bas Schothorst, the Austrian team have made the right choice. “That’s a bit of a safe choice, of course. He has been with the team for a long time, since 2013 I believe,” he said on the Aan Tafel podcast as quoted by F1 Maximaal.
“In the end, he was promoted to this position. Of course he also knew Adrian Newey well, so I think it’s a safe choice. I think he’s a good guy. He has been part of many successes with the team,” he added.
“It doesn’t matter what your name is” ♂️
Pierre Wache confirms that Adrian Newey is being phased out of Red Bull technical meetings ❌ pic.twitter.com/kPoeRgkp3u
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) May 17, 2024
Wache joined the team after stints at both BMW and Sauber in F1. He started as the team’s chief engineer in 2013 but was quickly promoted to the position of performance director. In 2018, he got to step up once again as the technical director of the team — reporting directly to Newey. Now, Wache has assumed the Briton’s role overseeing design.
There has been a lot of talk about Red Bull phasing out Newey while promoting the younger crop of designers and engineers like Wache up the ladder. Even Newey acknowledged that he moved on to seek a new challenge at Aston Martin to let his younger colleagues like Wache lead the Austrian outfit on the technical front.
Wache will be key in Red Bull’s resurgence after Newey’s exit
One of the biggest issues plaguing Red Bull in 2024 was the worsening handling of the RB20. Admittedly, the team fell behind their rivals in terms of development but also made some key decisions on design that ruptured the balance of the car.
“We were more surprised by the step of the others,” explained Wache you oversaw the Bulls’ decline as compared to McLaren in the latter half of last season. Going into 2025, the team is expected to maintain the same concepts on the RB21 albeit with modifications to rectify the gaps in philosophy.
Wache himself is aware that he has a mountain to climb this season if the Milton Keynes outfit expects to catch up to the likes of McLaren and Ferrari. The Woking-based team, who won the Constructors’ championship for the first time since 1998 last year, will go into the season as favorites.
With a lot of catching up to do, Red Bull also need to keep Ferrari’s threat at bay who managed a spectacular turnaround in 2024 and will be powered by a rejuvenated Lewis Hamilton this season.
If Max Verstappen wants to retain his title and Red Bull want to get their hands on the coveted Constructors’ title once again, Wache and his design department need to perform some miracles to rectify the RB21’s lingering concerns.
