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Red Bull had to take a risk with the new concept: Waché points out why
- Nicole Mulder
After a strong start to the 2024 season, Red Bull Racing was rapidly overtaken by the competition. The Formula One team still leads both championships, but saw its last four wins go to McLaren and Mercedes. Technical director Pierre Waché admits that Red Bull might just come to the conclusion after this year that it would have been better to continue with the old concept.
Waché: 'Perhaps Red Bull concludes that the old concept was better'
As Adrian Newey also pointed out, Red Bull assumed that the competition would quickly get closer if it continued with the old but highly successful concept of the RB18 and RB19. "Therefore, we wanted to use our advantage to take the concept one step further, to optimise the aerodynamics," Waché said in a conversation with Auto, Motor und Sport.
The Red Bull chief admits the team took risks in doing so. "Now it seems it has not delivered what we had hoped. But this risk was necessary. We have the oldest wind tunnel in the whole field and detail work suffers. It was foreseeable that sooner or later the others would optimise their concepts, so we had to take a radical step," he explains.
"We are not afraid to take risks. Whether in the factory, on the track or in terms of strategy. That is the mentality of this team. I can't judge yet whether it was a good or bad move. Right now, thanks to the good start to the season, it helps us lead the championship. Maybe at the end of the year, we will come to the conclusion that it would have been better to further develop the concept we had," admits Waché.
This article has been written in collaboration with Ben Stevens.