Red Bull’s Wache hails Newey’s ‘challenge the system’ involvement

Red Bull technical director Pierre Wache says Adrian Newey’s ability to “challenge the system” by looking at the bigger picture in every department at Milton Keynes has been a big benefit for the team’s engineers.

As Red Bull’s chief technical officer, Newey retains oversight over the outfit’s design and development operations, although the Briton readily admits that he is drawing closer to retirement with each passing season.

Still, the 64-year-old remains an active participant in Red Bull’s engineering departments.

But Wache says that Newey’s tendency towards disrupting the norms – or “challenging the system“ – when interacting with the team’s designers and engineers has been recognized as a significant asset in propelling the team towards Formula 1 excellence.

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“The structure is done to have people we trust in the system, either at the track or at the factory, and to be able to develop the work in the way we want to,” Wache told Motorsport.com.

“Adrian, he's going to each area where he wants to be able to interact with everybody and will challenge the system.

“It's a chance for him to be able to go into small details in some areas, and then bigger pictures in others.

“When you do your job, and you have somebody at the side you know well, if you take that step back it can be a massive benefit.

“The intention of everybody in the team is to make the car quicker, but the way that everybody is doing it will be different. So I think the balance we have is quite good.”

Another area where Red Bull’s techies were able to tap into Newey’s vast knowledge and brilliance is ground-effects, the aero concept that was omni-present in F1 in the 80s and that was brought back to the fore in 2022 by Grand Prix racing’s latest generations rules.

Newey entered F1 just at the end of the sport’s first ground-effects era but the Briton had intensively studied the aero phenomenon at the time.

He was therefore able to offer his insight to the team during the design process of Red Bull’s first-generation ground-effects car, the championship winning RB18.

While Wache made clear that Newey’s discernment had no bearing on the team avoiding the porposing troubles suffered by most of its rivals, he did admit that other areas benefitted from his savviness.

“On the bouncing, not, but on others yes,” said Wache.

“On some floor stiffness, and everything that it should be, it was highlighted before. The porpoising was not anticipated before, but the ride was anticipated.”

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