2024 was a tumultuous year for Red Bull Racing both on and off the track. The year began with reports of Christian Horner being investigated for alleged “inappropriate behaviour” which escalated into a row about transparency courtesy of straight speaking CEO of McLaren, Zak Brown.

Further, there was an internal power struggle with the Austrian directors of the parent company apparently wishing to oust Horner from his position as team principal.

The Verstappen’s became embroiled in the Horner controversy when Jos demanded he step down as the team was being “torn apart.” Further, Verstappen Snr intimated Max could leave the team were the internal difficulties not resolved.

 

 

 

Red Bull bombshell: Newey leaves

The next bombshell to land on the Red Bull team was the resignation of their guru F1 car designer, Adrian Newey. Having stepped away from y from the technical director role in 2018 in favour of Pierre Wache, Newey had been working part time for several years and merely in a consultancy role.

Toto Wolff then stirred the pot claiming Red Bull were in decline and making a public and open offer to Max to join Mercedes. He added there was a place in the Bracelet based team for his mentor, Dr. Helmut Marko, who cold fill the role of the late Niki Lauda.

Yet while all this was fermenting, on track results were pretty decent for the world champion. Max won seven of the first ten Grand Prix of the year and was leading in Australia only to suffer a dramatic brake failure causing him to retire from the race.

Yet 2024 was to prove not to be repeat of the previous season where Red Bull dominated from start to finish. McLaren were looking quick as early as the first visit to Europe at the Emilia-Romagane Grand Prix. Verstappen won the race but was harried all the way by Lando Norris, who on a less processional circuit may well have won the day.

What went wrong for Red Bull in 2024

 

 

 

Real world correlation issues

Now Red Bull had accumulated 268 points to McLaren’s 154, a lead of 114 points and looked set to run away with the championship. Yet a refusal to switch planned in season development of the RB20 meant Red Bull were to lose tiger advantage and McLaren claimed their first constructors title since 1998.

As Red Bull made their first mis-step, the paddock almost as one smirked suggesting it was the loss of the Newey factor which was at the root of the world champions difficulties. 

This being the third year of the ground effect regulations, it was expected the teams would close down Red Bull’s advantage, yet technical director Pierre Wache explained in Abu Dhabi, the RB20 problems were somewhat of their own making.

“There are multiple aspects to that story,” Wache told assembled media. “The first one is the correlation, that the car had some different characteristics than what we expected in terms of aero.

British motorsport boss ‘to sue’ FIA president

 

 

 

Newey criticises Red Bull entering “experience”

“Another aspect is that we didn’t expect some elements would affect the car performance as much as they did. They were not there by desire, but maybe we didn’t focus enough on them. Those elements were still there at the end of the season, and we have to fix them for 2025.”

Red Bull are using one of the most antiquated wind tunnels in F1 which is set to be replaced in 2026. Even so the dramatic turnaround which saw McLaren both catch and beat them easily to the world championship was surprising.

Having completed his garden leave, Adrian Newey last week started his new life at Aston Martin. The team’s new technical managing partner had commented on his former employer’s demise over the 2024 season.

“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,” he told AmuS.

Red Bull Racing rethink over Lawson’s role

 

 

 

Wache responds to Newey

Now Wache has issued his response to the criticism from his former colleague shrugging off the ‘lack of experience’ slur. “It’s true that I have a lot less experience than [Newey],” he conceded. “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,” added Wache.

Red Bull’s TD is focused on analysing the team’s performance from last season rather than making direct personal critiques, while admitting there were mistakes made in 2024.

“We didn’t do a good enough job last year, and we lost ground in terms of performance – maybe by experience, maybe by misunderstanding some stuff, and we tried to correct it,” admitted Wache.

Fans demand Sky Sports analyst sacking

 

 

 

Perez multiplied the problems

Of course in no small way, part of Red Bull’s difficulties lay in the fact that Max Verstappen remained capable of winning often enough to clinch his fourth consecutive drivers’ championship. Meanwhile his team mate Sergio Perez was crashing and burning and came home bottom of the rankings of the drivers from the top four teams.

Wache is candid and accepts in times of trouble you may well learn more than when all is going sweetness and light. “What is correct is that it looks, for me, that we [now]understand,” he said. “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.”

Wache goes on to state that problem solving is the essence his job. “In this sense, I think it was very beneficial, and it’s what I enjoy the most. Fixing a problem is our job,” he explained.

Marko issues warning to Hamilton

 

 

 

Newey’s nose was out of joint

When pressed on how he felt about Newey’s personal comments about him and his team, Pierre was candid.“Personally, it doesn’t affect me. From my point of view, my job is not personal. 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.”

Wache has lived in Newey’s shadow for years, despite being the full time driving force behind the team which designs the Red Bull F1 cars. In fact when Christian Horner attempted to share the praise for their dominant 2023 RB19 with Wache and his team, it sparked a negative response from Newey’s wife.

In January last year there was a social media post claiming the uber dominant RB19 was the product of Wache and his team rather than just Newey. Adrian’s wife Amanda responded on X: “Absolute b******s.”

A number of F1 observers believe the reason Newey left Red Bull was because he’d had enough of his self imposed part time role within the team and wanted to more control. In terms of succession planning it appears Horner was not prepared to roll back the clock and make the team dependent on their ageing car designer once again.

Newey “massively” surprised by Lance Stroll

 

 

 

 

Hamilton “surprise data” from testing

Lewis Hamilton admits he is still “pinching himself” as he heads towards his first race for the iconic Ferrari Formula One team. Lewis made the controversial switch from his Mercedes home having failed to negotiate the long term deal he wanted with the silver arrows.

Ferrari have dome everything in their power too ensure Hamilton’s induction has been as complete as possible, to the extent the team has used all its ‘filming days’ and testing of previous cars mileage allowance before the season has even begun.

Its more usual for an F1 team to retain some of these testing opportunities for when they deliver a big upgrade during the early part of the season, yet Ferrari believed they were better spent on acclimatising Hamilton alongside his new team mate Charles Leclerc who is in his sixth year with the Maranello outfit… READ MORE