Red Bull technical director Waché "not confident about 2025"
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Red Bull Racing technical director Pierre Waché says that he is "not confident" about the team's chances to win another world title in 2025. The Frenchman believes that the other teams on the grid will be quicker than many expect, and because of that, a 2025 title may be something the Austrian team miss out on.
Despite a tricky season in 2024, Waché assumed that it would be Max Verstappen who would be the world champion come the end of the season. The Dutchman did that, winning his fourth consecutive title at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. However, the technical director believes the chances of making it five consecutive titles will be far harder.
It was a dominant start to the 2024 season, but since the summer, Red Bull have not been the fastest team on the F1 grid, struggling to make the podium at many races. While other teams have made great strides in terms of development, the Austrian team went down the wrong path, and as a result, they are currently working hard to catch up so that the 2025 car is competitive in every Grand Prix again.
Whether it will be successful? "I think we are happy with the things we were able to do quickly after that (the bad phase, ed.). But I am not confident about 2025. I don't have that confidence because I think the others will also be very fast. It will be a battle of a whole year," Waché told Motorsport.com.
Competition surprised Red Bull
However, the Frenchman is convinced that Red Bull is heading in the right direction. The fact that he is holding back is because the grid is getting better and better at understanding the regulations, and as a result, they have become closer together. Looking back, Waché is surprised that at the beginning of 2023, competitors had not already approached Red Bull.
But for reasons that cannot be explained by Waché, that did not happen: "It was not that we were doing better, it was more that other teams were not yet doing well at that time," he said. "McLaren started late this season, although that is not our fault. The car in itself was not very different. In absolute terms, our car was the same, but we need to find more performance, because the others are now also very fast or even faster."
This article was created in collaboration with Ludo van Denderen
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