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Waché not bothered by Newey's RB20 comment as he aims to learn
The RB20 was far from the most liked car by its drivers. Pierre Waché, technical director of Red Bull Racing, has now reacted Adrian Newey's comments about where the development went wrong for the Austrians.
The RB20 seemed just as dominant with Max Verstappen as their car before was, in 2023 season. However, after the first sign at the Miami Grand Prix and the car beginning to struggle more compared to McLaren and Ferrari especially towards the second half of the season, Max Verstappen had to focus on bringing in the drivers' title home while they finished third in the constructors' standings.
"It’s something I was starting to become concerned about, but not many other people in the organisation seemed to be very concerned about it. From what I can see from the outside, but I don’t know, the guys at Red Bull – this is no criticism – I think they just, perhaps through lack of experience, kept going in that same direction. And the problem became more and more acute to the point that even Max found it difficult to drive," the designed then explained to Auto, Motor und Sport.
Waché responds to Newey's verdict
Waché said that the Briton's words do not bother him at all, and added they also have a truth value. "It’s true that I have a lot less experience than him!," he began to PlanetF1.com. "He’s 66 years old, and I’m 50 – 16 years less experience than him. I cannot comment on that. I don’t take it personally, and maybe it’s true. It doesn’t change anything, I think what you have to learn… this type of comment, for me, doesn’t matter."
"What is important is what is true – we didn’t do enough of a good job during last year, and we lost ground in terms of performance – maybe by experience, maybe by misunderstanding some stuff, and we tried to correct it. What is correct is that it looks, for me, that we understand. I think this is how you learn the most. When we were in 2023, we learned less than last year, and every problem you have gives you a little bit more to understand what you need to do," the Frenchman continued to explain.
"Personally, it doesn’t affect me. From my point of view, my job is not a personal job. My job is to make sure, in an engineering competition, I’m more affected by the fact that we are not good enough and losing, than a personal comment about myself," Waché concluded.
This article was written in collaboration with Nicole Mulder
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