Pierre Waché Shrugs Off Newey’s Inexperience Jibe

Pierre Waché remains unfazed by Adrian Newey’s remarks, focusing instead on Red Bull’s performance and lessons learned from past shortcomings.

In January, Adrian Newey, former technical director of Red Bull Racing, had his own theory on why the RB20’s development had gone off track.

The Briton stated that “the development was starting to worry me, but few people in the organization seemed to really care,” adding that it might be due to “a lack of experience.”

Pierre Waché, the team’s current technical director, was asked about these claims after winter testing.

“It’s true that I have much less experience than him!” the Frenchman replied jokingly.

“He is 66, and I am 50—16 years younger than him. I can’t comment on that.”

“I don’t take it personally, and it might be true. It doesn’t change anything. I think what needs to be learned… this kind of comment, to me, doesn’t matter.”

“What matters is what is true—we didn’t do a good enough job last year, and we lost ground in terms of performance—maybe due to experience, maybe due to a misunderstanding of certain things, and we’ve tried to correct that.”

“What is also true is that, for me, it seems we understand it now. That’s how you learn the most. When we were in 2023, we learned less than last year, and every problem you face gives you more insight into what you need to do.”

“In that sense, I think it was very beneficial, and that’s what I appreciate the most. Solving a problem is our job.”

“Personally, this kind of comment doesn’t concern me. From my perspective, my job is not a personal one. My job is to ensure that, in an engineering competition, I am more affected by the fact that we are not good enough and that we are losing than by a personal remark about myself.”

Asked whether such comments could help create a “Pierre Waché legacy” at Red Bull, the Frenchman responded: “My desire is not to make my name famous. My desire is to make the team win. That’s all. Nothing more.”

“I am paid well enough to do this job and enjoy it. I don’t need anything else. I would rather hear the paddock say, ‘The Red Bull team did a fantastic job’ than ‘Pierre Waché did a good job.’”

“It doesn’t change my life. I’m 50 years old. I am closer to the end than the beginning. What we need to focus on is the younger people growing within the team, who bring a lot of performance and work hard. They do the same things as I do, the same number of hours, the same work… we are all in this together.”