Pierre Waché exclusive: Red Bull life after Adrian Newey and his disinterest in personal glory

Pierre Waché has opened up on life at Red Bull after Adrian Newey, and his own personal feelings on the limelight…

Pierre Waché has revealed the impact of Adrian Newey’s departure from Red Bull as he steps forward as the team’s most prominent technical leader.

Waché, Red Bull’s technical director, recently re-committed his future to the team with a new contract, one of a bevy of names to sign new deals and continue with the Milton Keynes-based squad for the future.

What impact has Adrian Newey’s departure had on Red Bull?

Waché has spent the last six years as technical director for Red Bull, working closely alongside chief technical officer Adrian Newey as the duo oversaw the creation of championship-winning machines like the RB16B, the RB18, and F1’s most dominant car ever, the RB19.

But this particular partnership is drawing to a close with Newey confirming earlier this year that he is to depart Red Bull entirely by the middle of 2025, having already taken a step back from the coal face of F1 as he serves a soft gardening leave period.

Newey’s departure means Waché assumes responsibility in his own right for the technical leadership of Red Bull – not that the 49-year-old is in any way fazed by the dynamic change.

Sitting down opposite PlanetF1.com for an exclusive chat during the Belgian Grand Prix weekend, Waché is affable, chatty, and completely relaxed as our interview starts – and the obvious question is just how things have changed following confirmation of the news of Newey’s departure.

After all, Newey hasn’t completely left the building, but his expertise can no longer be drawn upon – does that make life a little strange for Waché and the other senior technical leaders?

“It’s a challenge in the company and it’s a shame that he’s leaving,” Waché said.

“But, at one point, we move forward alongside… as an engineering team, what you see from outside is one aspect but, on our side, we already know [when] people leave the team, we have already organised ourselves with our team.

“We would prefer him with us, but that is not how it is. We don’t think in this way, we try to see what you can do for yourself and how you can improve. If we see some weaknesses, we try to improve and this is how we work – we concentrate on what we can do better.”

Newey has been viewed as a God-like figure within F1 for a long time, having been responsible for designs that have won 13 Drivers’ Championships, and 12 Constructors’ Championships across three different teams. It’s a reputation that’s been well-earned, but Waché has slowly been building his own in recent years – particularly as he and Newey’s RB19 swept all before it last season.

But, given that Waché’s name doesn’t yet command the same jaw-dropping response that Newey’s does, is it a source of frustration for the Frenchman to have his own achievements of recent years laid at the feet of Newey by fans and the media?

If it is, he certainly doesn’t show it as he considers his answer.

“No, not at all. The frustration is not to win,” he replied.

“I don’t mind if the media says [something is] due to whomever – what is important is we know each individual in the team will participate to the system.

“Otherwise, it would be a team of one person, but that is not the case – we have more than 300 engineers in the system to develop and make our car quicker.

“Adrian was a big part of it but like every individual, and I think it is important for each individual that they are doing the best they can. With the media, I’m not working especially to be a star or whatever, I’m working because I like what I’m doing. I want to succeed and win, that is the main thing.”

But, given Newey’s step back, any successes secured by Red Bull from here can be attributed directly to Waché – is he relishing the opportunity to start creating his own legacy in F1 car design after learning alongside Newey for so long?

“You don’t choose in this way – you do it because you think you can change the way we work in the way you like,” he said.

“And into the way you think is more efficient and more interesting for the team for future success.

“You don’t do it for your personal glory – we have a job. The business has changed a bit but Formula 1, especially on the engineering side, is an engineering competition.

“The purpose is not to be on the front page. The purpose is to make the quickest car and I think this is what most people in the business, in engineering, want. If I wanted the job just to be that [famous], I would be the wrong person to do this job.

“You have to recognise that you do the job because you are paid for it, and I’m not owning the job!”

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From an external viewpoint, the changes going on at Red Bull suggest a revolution is underway – along with Newey’s departure after nearly 20 years was last season’s switch by long-time chief engineering officer Rob Marshall to McLaren. Marshall had been with the team for 17 years.

Just days after our chat at Spa-Francorchamps, Red Bull also confirmed the departure of long-time sporting director Jonathan Wheatley, with Wheatley having leaped at the chance to step up into a management position as Audi offered him a role as team principal at its F1 project.

But this is simply indicative of natural turnover, with Red Bull getting the chance to promote from within its own ranks, Waché explained.

“For sure, but it’s not [new],” he said when asked if a new chapter is beginning at Red Bull.

“Before, we had Peter Prodromou, who left after 2014. Mark Ellis [left after 2013].

“It’s the nature of the team, and the leaders who left – they were a leader in their area. But it’s a natural aspect of each organisation.

“For sure, [Adrian] was a big figure of the system. But you know, at one point, we give a chance to the younger, bright people to embrace this challenge, like I have now.

“Some people like Enrico [Balbo, head of aero], Ben Waterhouse [head of performance engineering], Craig [Skinner, chief designer], Paul [Monaghan, chief engineer], it is good for the people and for the team.”

As for the importance of being able to promote from within, Waché said that it serves as tremendous motivation for engineers and designers climbing the ladder within Milton Keynes.

“It’s a massive benefit because you see the hard work is paying off,” he said.

“The team is a working organisation – not by individual, but a group and how we work together. If you have each individual working in isolation, nothing works.

“If you want to put a rocket on the moon, one guy cannot do it –  you need people doing stuff and it’s the same for the car.”

The personal challenge of being Red Bull’s technical director

While Waché has spent six years as Red Bull’s technical director and, on paper, his role and day-to-day won’t change, there’s no doubting the fact that Newey’s departure does change things a little for Waché.

But it would be crass to suggest that Newey was something of a safety net for the technical leadership that no longer can lean on his guidance when it comes to ideas and implementing them onto the car, even if the 65-year-old could have been used as a sounding board up until recently.

Certainly, Waché has grown into his role as technical director over the last six years, and, with the spotlight now shining more intensely on him, he laughs when I ask him how he’s enjoying the personal challenge of growing into a position of completely technical leadership.

“I’m not sure I enjoy it massively, I will say,  it is not the nicest aspect of the job, I would say!” he said.

“What is interesting about this job is you can face different technical problems and try to resolve them. But, the more you go up in the system, the more far away from the detail of the problem, you are.

“As an engineer, you go away from what you like. You try to give some advice and some direction on where the team has to go but what I like is to go into detail.”

But, given that Waché has been with Red Bull for over 10 years at this point, his face lights up when I ask him what it is about the Milton Keynes-based squad that makes him proud to work there, and what is it about the team that makes him want to stick around – after all, his stock has never been higher than after the creation of the RB19.

“Personally, because it’s a team – it’s not a company,” he smiled.

“We are not corporate and we are leaving the people freedom to develop themselves and to act as themselves. This is not the case in every company and team.

“What Adrian and Christian have developed as a team is still a race team. We still have the racing mentality aspect and we are taking risks – Red Bull, as a parent company, has a massive trust in the system and never puts pressure on us in a bad way.

“We are winning together and we are losing together – I think this is something you don’t find somewhere else.”

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