Ted Kravitz believes that Red Bull’s recent revival might have saved the job of technical director Pierre Wache. The Frenchman has been under pressure over the past 18 months amid a challenging period for the Milton Keynes squad. Wache played an instrumental role in designing the cars that delivered Max Verstappen’s second, third and fourth Drivers’ Championship titles, but since the early stages of the 2024 campaign, Red Bull’s star driver has been fighting with sub-par machinery relative to rivals Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
After the summer break, things looked bleak for Wache and Red Bull, but back-to-back Grand Prix victories in Monza and Baku have restored faith in the six-time world champions. Verstappen now trails World Championship leader Piastri by 69 points with seven races remaining, giving him a slim but legitimate shot at defending his crown.
“I think he’s been… justified is maybe the wrong word, but vindicated in sorting out this car,” Kraviz said on the Sky Sports F1 Show podcast. “I think we should have a positive word to say about Pierre Wache, the Red Bull technical director, and his troops.
“It was looking a bit touch-and-go as to whether he was going to be able to a) turn the car around and b) if not, hold onto his job. Not only has he done the first, but that means he’s very much done the second. I’ve got to say well done to him, because there must be a lot of pressure off him personally.
“They had that dip – they were good at the beginning of the year, they were not good in the middle of the year, now they’re good again. I think he found the pressure of his job a little bit difficult, as anybody would, and I think it’s good, personally for him, that he’s managed to turn it around.”
According to a report from GPblog, Wache turned heads in the Verstappen camp earlier this year when he suggested that Red Bull could learn from the development of sister team Racing Bulls’ car. The Dutchman was even linked with a move away from the team amid interest from Mercedes, but opted to stay put for 2026.
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Red Bull’s recent revival has coincided with the early stages of new team principal Laurent Mekies’ tenure. The 48-year-old replaced long-serving boss Christian Horner after the British Grand Prix and experienced a sprint race victory at his first weekend in charge in Belgium, before adding two trophies to his collection in Monza and Baku.
However, Mekies believes his team will be hard-pressed to continue their recent success. “After trying to take it to the next step, we will be back at tracks with medium speed corners, where we were killed by McLaren two races ago in Zandvoort,” he said in Baku.
“The gap was very significant. Also in Spa, we left Spa thinking that they were half a second faster than us, even though Max won the sprint. So that’s the next set of answers we will be chasing.”
