Even if Max Verstappen was crowned in Las Vegas, and there is a little improvement since the developments received in Austin, Red Bull still does not have the best car in this last part of the season. The Milton Keynes team seems to have found the limits of its concept, which are increasingly difficult to exploit.
And this is not good news: because next season will be a year of regulatory stability.
This explains the pessimism of Frenchman Pierre Waché, the team's technical director. True-false pessimism or real worry?
“I think we're happy with what we accomplished quickly. »
“But I'm not confident for 2025. I'm not confident because I think the other teams are very fast or close. It will be a battle throughout the year. »
Waché's pessimism would however be… good news: because according to the Frenchman, Red Bull will thus be forced to surpass itself.
“If you trust, you are dead,” he declared.
“You have to work hard, and everyone on the team has to work hard. Everyone works hard. »
“When you see the number of people we have who are trying to find a very small amount of performance and add more and more everywhere, it's a very difficult task. »
“I have this lack of confidence, because if I have confidence, you go to sleep, you don't work, and then you don't find performance. »
The turning point also occurred in a moment of great difficulty, after the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
“I definitely think Monza was a key point and a wake-up call for us. »
“It highlighted some issues on the car that we hadn't seen before…or that we had seen, but suspected and guessed at. »
“What's really impressive is how the team responded to correct or mitigate this issue and reduce it. And already in Austin we brought something. And I think even Max said the car put everything together better from there. »
In reality for Waché, what is surprising is not that Red Bull is in difficulty, it is rather that it was so dominant, especially last year.
Clearly, the other teams have not worked well enough in recent seasons!
“What happened this year in terms of fighting is what we expected in 2023, to be honest,” he declared.
“In 2022, we did not start the season with the fastest car since Ferrari had started well. »
“So we expected such a fight in 2023, but it didn’t happen. And in 2024, from the start of the season, that hasn't happened either! I can't explain that. »
“It’s not like we did a better job. It's more that others did a bad job during certain periods. McLaren started late this season. And it's not our fault. »
“The car wasn't massively different. In absolute terms, it remains the same. But we need to improve the performance of the car because the others are faster. »
Waché sets its development priority for 2025
It is therefore both with pessimism but also determination that Pierre Waché is currently working on next year's Red Bull.
What F1 concept should we expect? Undoubtedly close to the current concept, in times of capped budgets, and just before the regulatory revolution of 2026.
Waché gave a first clue: the priority will be to make the Red Bull work on a wider variety of tracks.
“Definitely having a decent car on several types of circuits. I think that on this type of circuit like Vegas, we are not comfortable. So improving slow corners and straight line speed is one of our goals. »
In response to criticism from Max Verstappen, Red Bull should also, next year, develop specific rear wings for Monza and Vegas. This was not the case this year (for budgetary reasons), and the Dutchman complained about it…
“I think it’s something to consider,” Wache added.
“Maybe we didn't do it for several reasons, like budget and time. When you're working on the rear wing, you're not doing anything else. »
“Clearly it may have been a mistake. This is something we need to evaluate. We need to find a rear wing that is better than what we have. It's not an easy task either, but I think it's clear that it's something we'll look at, because we ruled it out this year and last year. »
Verstappen will invest this winter to improve the future RB21
Dr Helmut Marko acknowledges that Red Bull has a lot of work to do this winter. And Verstappen will also actively work on it.
“For Max's fifth title, we'll just have to give him the right car, and Max will take care of it. A car that is not as capricious as the current one. A car that is constantly at the forefront. »
“We saw a new Max Verstappen, a new Max working with the team. He has positioned himself as a leader to bring the team together and this will help Pierre Waché and the engineers correct what is needed for the RB21 over the winter. He will invest in this. »
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