Red Bull technical chief explains pace decline

Red Bull technical director Pierre Waché has offered an insight into the squad’s shortcomings during the ongoing F1 season.

The reigning world champions commenced the season in strong fashion, winning five out of the opening seven races.

However, in the seven races that have followed, it has won just twice with rival teams, McLaren and Mercedes in particular, making a step forward.

Speaking to Motorsport.com, Waché named numerous factors that have led to Red Bull being caught by the competition this year.

“Some things you can attribute to the correlation [between the wind tunnel and practice],” he said. 

“Our wind tunnel is relatively old and because of our position in the championship, we can run fewer hours in it.

“At the beginning of 2022, Ferrari still had the strongest car, and in 2023 we had expected much more opposition, but that didn’t happen.

“Against expectations, that also stayed out in the first races of 2024, but with a delay of about 4 to 5 races, those other teams came alongside.”

F1 convergence no surprise

The current car regulations are in their third year, with Waché stating it is only natural to see convergence without any disruption to the technical rules.

“If you stabilise the regulations long enough, you can almost guarantee that the field will be closer together,” he said.

“That doesn’t mean the development ceiling has been reached. You can always take inspiration from other people’s ideas. 

“Over the past two years, other teams have mostly taken ideas from us. But you need others to find things too, so you can take another step.”

Red Bull is facing a threat in the fight for the constructors’ championship, with McLaren lingering just 42 points behind.

Waché added the team has not maintained its strength in high-speed corners relative to the competition.

“The car is undoubtedly better than last year’s, but we have not delivered in all areas as expected,” he said.

“I think we have improved a lot in slow and medium-speed corners, but on the other hand we are not as good as last year in the fast corners.”