Red Bull’s Technical Director Pierre Waché has spoken of his contentment with the staff the team has as it prepares for the loss of two key figures at the end of this season.
With Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey leaving early next year and Sporting Director Jonathan Wheatley exiting to become Audi’s Team Principal, the team will be bereft of men who have been present since 2005 and 2006 respectively.
But Frenchman Waché, who joined Red Bull in 2009, is staying with the team, signing a new contract earlier this year and will be the man to oversee development of the challenger that takes on the first year of the new regulations in 2026.
Whilst both Newey and Wheatley’s exits will be a huge blow for any team, Waché is pleased with the staff at his and the team’s disposal, telling Motorsport.com’s Dutch arm that everyone plays to each-other’s strengths well.
“If we are not satisfied with something, of course we try to change it or compensate for it,” he said.
“Speaking for myself, I am not perfect in my role, just as no one is perfect in life. And you should certainly never think you are perfect.
“On the contrary, you have to gather people around you to compensate for your own weaknesses, that’s how it should be.
I hope and I see that all the people below me are better than myself in certain things, to compensate for what I can’t do.
“We are a group and in that it is not that some are weaker than others. No, everyone has strengths and bringing them together is the most important thing. There is no such thing as a group in which one individual does everything.
“What matters is how all those individuals work together.”
Red Bull are currently sitting atop both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ championships, but the latter is not led by such a margin to which the team have become accustomed over the last two seasons.
But Waché pointed-out that the team believes its working at its optimum with the facilities available to them, but made it clear that this is due to change, with an update of its wind tunnel forthcoming.
“It’s true that you always run into a limitation in everything you do,” Waché said.
“What we have created comes through the people and so in a sense you are always your own ceiling.
“We work every day to raise that ceiling. If you use the tools in the right way, then at some point those tools become your ceiling.
“Although in some respects we may be the best compared to others, we still need to improve other aspects. The wind tunnel is one of those things.
“That’s why we are starting to develop a new wind tunnel for the next few years. The company is giving us that opportunity by providing money and we are very grateful for that.
“That’s an investment in our performance in the future.”
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