F1 News: Red Bull Director Delivers Bad News For Team's Dominance In 2025

Saajan Jogia | 5 Hours Ago

May 4, 2024; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen (1) during F1 qualifying for Miami Grand Prix at Miami International Autodrome. Mandatory Credit: Peter Casey-Imagn Images / Peter Casey-Imagn Images

Red Bull technical director Pierre Wache has raised concerns about the team’s prospects for the 2025 season, expressing doubts about maintaining their winning streak amidst growing competition. Wache acknowledged that rival teams are closing the gap in the technical race, suggesting Red Bull’s recent dominance has been more about others catching up late rather than outright superiority.

While the Milton Keynes outfit enjoyed total dominance in 2023 when it secured 21 wins out of the 22 races of the season, the current season saw rival teams such as Mercedes, Ferrari, and McLaren give a tough fight to Red Bull, with McLaren being the most consistent.

Max Verstappen won his fourth championship title in Las Vegas, mostly owing to Red Bull carrying forward its winning streak from last year. However, the scene shifted dramatically after the Spanish Grand Prix in June, when the other teams upped their ante, with McLaren and Ferrari even surpassing Red Bull in the Constructors' Championship.

Wache feels that the rival teams have finally caught on properly in the ground effect era that began in 2022, and he now fears 2025 will showcase an entirely new picture with intense competition. When he was asked if the recent improvements on an otherwise troublesome RB20 F1 car had offered him hopes for 2025, he said:

"I think we are happy with what we have done quickly.

"I'm not confident for '25. I'm not confident because I think the others are very quick or are there. It will be a fight for the full year.

"If you have confidence in this business, you are dead.

"You have to work hard, and everybody has to, in the team, work hard. Everybody's working hard.

"When you see the number of people we have trying to find a very small amount of performance and add and add and add everywhere, it is a very difficult task.

"I have a lack of confidence, because if I have confidence, you go to sleep, you don't go to work, and then you don't find performance."

Wache shared Red Bull’s perspective on the 2023 season, revealing that the team had anticipated fierce competition last year. However, the expected challenge materialized only this season, indicating that rival teams were slower in developing their cars. He explained:

"What happened this year in terms of fighting is what we expected in 2023, to be honest.

"In '22, we didn't start the season with the quickest car as Ferrari's start [was strong].

"So then we expected the fight in '23 but it didn't happen. And in '24, from the beginning of the season, it also didn't happen! That I cannot explain.

"It's not like if we did a better job. This [was] more the others did a bad job during certain periods. McLaren started late on this season. And it's not our fault.

"The car was not massively different. In absolute terms, it stays the same. But we have to improve the performance of the car, because the others are quicker."

Wache pointed out one of Red Bull's mistakes, which is not having a rear wing for ultra-low-downforce circuits, as seen in Las Vegas, where the team had to modify the existing wing. He explained:

"I think it's something to think [about].

"Maybe we didn't do it for multiple reasons, like budget and time. When you do the rear wing, you don't do something else.

"It's clear that maybe it was a mistake. That's something we have to assess. We have to find a rear wing that is better than what we have. It's also not an easy task, but I think it's clear that it is something we will study, as we dismissed it this year and last year."

Speaking on the goal for 2025, he explained it was important to have an all-rounder car for the team's success. He added:

"Clearly, to have a decent car in multiple types of track. I think on this type of track [like in Vegas], we are not nice. So improving the low-speed [corners] and straightline speed is one of our goals."