Newey’s departure will have a big effect on Red Bull, says Wache

Red Bull will feel the loss chief technical officier Adrian Newey, claims the Milton Keynes-based outfit's technical director Pierre Wache, who has been working together with the start desginer since 2013.

Adrian Newey announced earlier this month that he will leave Red Bull Racing in the first quarter of 2025. The rest of the year will see him continue to work with the team, but he will scale down his involvement in the F1 department of Red Bull. He will switch his focus on the development of the hypercar project of the company instead.

The star designer, who has won twelve Constructors' Championships with three different Formula One teams, has not announced his future plans, but he indicated that he might return to the sport following a brief break from the intensity of the F1 world.

Newey joined the Milton Keynes-based outfit in 2006, and his Red Bull cars have won a total of seven Drivers' Championships and six Constructors' Championships. However, the past years saw the Briton take a step back from the daily work and partly shifted his focus on other project of the company's Red Bull Technology department.

Speaking of the impact of Newey's departure, Red Bull technical chief Pierre Wache said: "Everybody has an impact. And for sure, the higher up you are, because you are the person giving the direction you have a higher impact. However, the main aspect is that in the team, the main thing you have to do is [create] the smooth working together you need to have between the different departments and the direction is clear.

"Then if you don't lose this aspect, I think you could be in the right path. The main thing is, are you sure that the direction is correct? You will judge if some people have a big impact or not, but the main aspect of the team is to make sure that this aspect is respected.

Despite labelling Newey's departure as a big loss, Wache thinks that Red Bull have prepared themselves as an organisation to fill the void that star desginer will leave behind.

"I think with knowing Adrian. I think everybody knows in this business, Adrian is a big man in this business and maybe the most successful engineer in F1. I think it's a big effect for us, but the team was prepared. It's not like we expect him for 20 years more. We have to build the team around and make sure that we are prepared for this eventuality.

"His experience, for sure. Clearly, he doesn't give away anything. He has a mentality of a racer. That is very, very nice to discuss with him on that aspect."

Wache joined Red Bull Racing at the beginning of 2013. He came on board as chief engineer of the performance engineering department of the team, while he was also responsible for the vehicle dynamics department. In 2018, he had risen to the role of Technical Director.

Since then, Wache has established a close relationship with Newey, which has constantly evolved depending on the Briton's non-F1 commitments.

"The way we work together change around the years because depending of how the implication was done in Formula 1 and the implication on different projects he has and the team adapt based on his implication in the different project, then for sure what what we try to do is to make sure that we are exchanging together about how what the direction we are going with the car.

"I'm not sure that I can explain how we work together on a daily basis, but he's clearly more oriented on the aero side, that clearly on this side was clearly more linked than maybe on my side, that I was more on the vehicle dynamics side, my expertise coming from there.

"Then for sure we exchange about how the interaction between each other was, like all the aerodynamics and vehicle dynamics people are working together. I don't know if it answers your question, but it was a big part, a big name in the team. Then, for sure, we exchanged a lot, especially in terms of direction of development and in terms of how we run the weekend," said Wache.