Pierre Waché, Red Bull Technical Director: “we didn’t do an incredible job last season”
Frenchman Pierre Waché, in his role as Red Bull's Technical Director, had the opportunity to oversee the creation and development of one of the most dominant cars in Formula 1 history, the RB19. But in his opinion, Red Bull has shown weaknesses which will be corrected this year...
In 2023, Red Bull achieved a more than historic season: 21 races won out of 22, records shattered, an unbeatable (or nearly unbeatable) Max Verstappen, and to top it all off, the very first double win in the championship of the Austrian team’s history.
Despite these figures and this historic season, Pierre Waché, the technical director of Red Bull, did not find the season as fantastic as it seems. The Frenchman, who had already commented on the failure to perform with Sergio Pérez in December last year, has now returned to the overall season of the Austrian team.
“We did a good job, but we didn’t do an incredible job last season,” Waché declared as seriously as possible. “I think we identified several weaknesses in the RB18 (the 2022 car) and we pushed on with the RB19 (the 2023 car) to address them. We didn’t solve all these weaknesses, but fortunately, the team was able to reduce the weaknesses that we had.”
Pierre Waché is also convinced that Red Bull’s domination was not solely their doing, considering that several of the team’s main rivals regressed in 2023. “The strength of our car is also the weakness of our competitors, as I’m not sure we expected to be alone at the top,” he stated.
« What I mean is that when you look at the lap times and the behavior compared to 2022, some teams have regressed more than they have progressed. I also think, and we have seen it with McLaren, that some teams have lost their way [between 2022 and 2023] more than we have gained ours. »
We did a good job, and I don’t minimize what the team has done, but I think it’s very relative in comparison [to the other teams], expressed the French person.
Identified areas for improvement
Attention is now turning to the RB20, which will be unveiled this Thursday evening. Pierre Waché is optimistic that this new single-seater will take a step forward compared to its predecessor.
And to help with his development, Max Verstappen himself identified the areas for improvement. Max mentioned on multiple occasions that our ability to handle kerbs and perform at low speeds is not the best compared to some others. That is clearly the area we are focusing on to improve, concluded the technical director.
