First the smiles, then…
Red Bull’s 2024 season started with big smiles. The RB20 surprised everyone with its new Mercedes-style aerodynamic ‘cannons,’ made possible by the repackaging and redistribution of the Honda power unit’s cooling system. Technical director Pierre Waché had eagerly awaited the Silverstone filming day, where the first images of the ‘revolutionary’ RB20 emerged, and on that occasion, the data provided the answers the engineers were hoping for.
The gamble to gain an extra 10 points of downforce seemed to have paid off. After the Bahrain tests and the first controlled races, Max Verstappen went so far as to say in an interview with *L’Équipe* that the RB20 was even better than the RB19. Given how competitive the RB19 was, it was natural for the team to expect year-on-year progress.
However, the season’s evolution told a different story from 2023, even though the team still secured the Drivers’ Championship. The cooling system prematurely overheated the power units (Verstappen finished the season using six ICEs instead of the four allowed by regulations), and the aerodynamic cannon solution was abandoned.
“We turned a dominant car into a monster,” Verstappen said during the Italian GP at Monza. Adrian Newey’s departure was automatically linked to Red Bull’s struggles—an overly simplistic cause-and-effect argument, but one that still contained some truth, even though the Milton Keynes team members always denied it.
Adrian Newey’s warning**
“I was worried about Red Bull’s problems, but others in the team weren’t,” Adrian Newey stated in his latest interview with *Auto Motor und Sport*, emphasizing that the ‘solutions’ applied through setup adjustments were ineffective, as demonstrated by Max Verstappen’s 10-race winless streak before his victory in the rain at Interlagos.
Now, the technical reins at Milton Keynes are in the hands of Pierre Waché. When the first signs of Red Bull’s performance struggles emerged, the Frenchman initially stated there was “no reason to hit the panic button.” However, the major update package introduced in Hungary did not yield the expected results, forcing Red Bull to conduct real on-track experiments—including reverting to the season’s early floor design—to try and regain control of the situation.
Pierre Waché’s response
Speaking to *Autosport*, Pierre Waché expressed his belief that what happened in 2024 would ultimately benefit Red Bull: “A team can only be good when it has doubts and is never overconfident. If you’re sure of yourself, you’re doomed to fail,” he said. “To be honest, what we faced last year, as an engineer, I see as very positive. When you’re winning, you never look at problems or details at the same level as when you’re struggling on track. When you’re no longer the fastest, that’s when you look and learn. And the more you learn, the more it becomes an investment for the future.”
At the start of 2024, Pierre Waché had already set his sights on 2026, the year he aims to prove that Red Bull’s 2022 success was not just luck in nailing the most effective concept. However, before 2026, an unexpected new challenge has emerged: getting Red Bull back on track to allow Max Verstappen to defend himself against McLaren and Ferrari, two teams that clearly outpaced Red Bull in performance by the end of 2024.
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