Red Bull technical leadership under pressure: Is Waché still under control?

Pierre Waché often is the first to walk out from behind the Red Bull garage at the end of an F1 session - on his way to a motorhome where the technical briefing takes place. In the last year, these have proven to be meetings where quite a few harsh words have been spoken, including from Max Verstappen, when the RB21 did not perform as hoped.

For a while, Waché's team has been busy trying to find solutions to the main problems of the Red Bull vehicle: especially the difficult balance to find and the high degradation of the tires. No matter how hard they think and how hard everyone tries, the silver bullet has not been found.

With the season almost halfway through and the focus increasingly on 2026, the question arises whether that silver bullet will ever be found. In the Dutch camp, there is no such confidence. Yes, improvements will undoubtedly be thought of, but they will never be enough to catch up with McLaren - let alone surpass it, so is the expectation.

This feeling is fueled by several interviews Waché gave in different media recently, from which, according to the Dutch, it emerged that he basically doesn't know what are the right next steps. Even stranger they think, Waché indicated that he could actually learn from Racing Bulls - Red Bull's little sister team.

This statement raised eyebrows in the Dutch camp, as GPblog learned, because it sounds very odd: Red Bull Racing with all its financial power and the so-called best people in its ranks, having to learn the tricks from the neighbor?

Such a remark from Waché sounds more like a certificate of incapacity, than it does inspire confidence for the near future, this website had heard. Because it's also Waché who leads the group of people designing and building the F1 car for 2026. He did indeed do the same for the 2022 season - the last time the technical regulations were overhauled) - but then the Frenchman could still rely on the genius of Adrian Newey.

There's no longer such a strong sounding board within Red Bull, so everyone looks to Waché. Will he manage to give Verstappen a car again with which the Dutchman can compete for world titles?

With keen interest, the Dutch camp is closely monitoring the development of the current RB21 and the future RB22. Verstappen will not leave after this season, as GPblog recently heard. But not being successful in ‘26 could make that a different decision is taken in twelve months.