It was after the Chinese Grand Prix that the news of Adrian Newey leaving the team came to light. While heading into the Miami GP weekend, we saw Max Verstappen lose his first race without a DNF this season, and some eyebrows were raised. Although Max Verstappen won the next race at Imola, Lando Norris was creeping up behind him with the intention of leaving the defending champion behind.

It’s clear that after the news of Adrian Newey leaving the team, the gaps in the wall where Red Bull‘s dominance was, are becoming visible. After Imola, it was down to Monaco, and Red Bull had 1 DNF from P18, and Verstappen finished a surprising P6 between 2 Mercedes. Now Newey is still working with the team until 2025, and the team is struggling to maintain its lead over Ferrari. So what does Red Bull have to say about this? Let’s take a look.

Red Bull’s Technical Director opens up about Adrian Newey’s departure from the team.

Pierre Wache is the current technical director of the dominant team and through his time in Red Bull, he has worked closely with Newey. Although Wache’s domain is in vehicle dynamics, he needs to work with aerodynamics to make the car run perfectly, and that is Newey’s department. According to Motorsport.nl, Pierre Wache sat down for an interview about the team’s functioning since the news of Newey’s departure. The big question to him was when the interview asked him about the extent of loss from Newey’s departure. Wache was prepared for the answer as he explained in detail, “Everyone in this business knows that Adrian is a big player and perhaps the most successful engineer ever in Formula 1.”  

Stating, “I think it isn’t that has a big effect on us, but the team was prepared. It is not that we expected Adrian to stay for another twenty years. We have reorganized the team and have to ensure that we are ready for his departure.” Wache then answered the question at hand saying, “‘His experience,’ is the answer to the question what he will miss most about Newey.”

Adrian Newey has been with Red Bull for just a little shy of 2 decades and over the year he has built multiple championship-winning cars. His designs were what made Sebastian Vettel the world champion and Max Verstappen too. Newey was always involved in Formula 1, even before his work with Red Bull and he made his debut in 1988. So by now, he has accumulated decades of experience and knowledge, which has been crucial for Red Bull in recent years.

Adrian Newey’s role in Red Bull

During the interview, Wache was asked about his experience working with the mastermind behind the RB20. The question continued to ask Wache about Adrian Newey’s role in Red Bull. To that, the technical director replied, “That’s difficult to explain because it has changed over the years. It just depended on how involved he was in Formula 1 and how involved he was in other projects. Of course, we have always exchanged ideas together about what direction we wanted to go with the car.”

However, he stated that it would be difficult to explain the interactions between the two as Newey was into aerodynamics and Wache was on the vehicle dynamics side of the car building process. Further explaining where their worlds collide, Wache said, “We exchanged a lot of ideas with each other, also because the aero people and the people who work on the dynamics of the car work closely together. In that respect, we talked a lot about the direction of further development and also about the approach to various race weekends.”

With that said, the two members have worked closely for several years, and letting go of a teammate is difficult, even more so when the team member is a veteran with decades of knowledge. Now that Adrian Newey is leaving the team, what do you think his next move will be after Red Bull? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.