Red Bull’s loss of performance justified by its technical director

For three years, and particularly in 2023, Red Bull has been at the top of all Formula 1 rankings. With three world championships for Max Verstappen and seven constructors’ championships for Red Bull, the team has nevertheless lacked performance this year. While the Dutchman dominated the seasons up to now, in 2024, the podium has already welcomed seven winners. A situation that no one had been able to predict.

With a car that appears to be less performant in light of the progress of others, Pierre Waché, technical director at Red Bull, wanted to explain the reasons for the performance delay this season.

Limitations on development

According to the French engineer, the drop in Red Bull’s performance is primarily the result of a series of factors that impact the team. One of the main reasons is the wind tunnel time allocated to the team. The FIA, which aims to make the championship more fair, has established limits on the wind tunnel time for each team based on its position in the standings. This means that the highest-ranking team, in this case Red Bull, has less time for testing. The Austrian team therefore has less data to adjust this element on their car. The problem is such that the team is working with a wind tunnel that is mainly based on old data.

« Our wind tunnel is relatively old, and due to our position in the championship, we have less hours of usage,” explains Pierre Waché as reported by Racing News 365. This limitation affects the ability to develop and optimize the car. On the other hand, the technical engineer is keen to highlight the progress made by other teams. The teams are now in their third year with the current regulations and are gradually gaining more experience with the rules. The lead that Red Bull had taken tends to diminish as other teams on the grid make new discoveries. « At the beginning of 2022, Ferrari still had the best car, and in 2023, we already expected more competition, but it did not happen. It also did not happen in the early races of 2024, but with a delay of four to five races, the other teams finally caught up with us.”

A car more efficient than last year

The Red Bull technical engineer took the opportunity to communicate about the performance of the RB20 compared to that of the RB19 used in 2023. Despite the assumptions saying otherwise, Pierre Waché affirms that this year’s car is much more performant. “The car is undoubtedly better than last year’s, but we have not delivered in all areas as expected,” the Frenchman told the media.

Among the improvements, one can note that according to him, the performances in slow and medium-speed corners have considerably improved, but the car is less performant in fast corners. The issues the car faced with the curbs have not been resolved. « This was already the case last year and on this point, we have also not made the expected step. »

Development is omnipresent in F1. But with time, the best reach a limit. An important factor that ultimately reduces, in the long run, the gap between teams. If regulations remain stable for long enough, you can almost be sure that the pack will tighten. This does not mean that the development ceiling has been reached. You can still be inspired by others’ ideas, he concluded.

With data accessible to all, it now seems obvious that Red Bull’s personal progressions were not going to stay secret for long. In the fight for the top of the rankings, although teams have drastically increased their performance, Red Bull is still in first place. To catch up, the team is already focusing on the next car to regain their dominant position.