Pressure on Red Bull tech chief after Adrian Newey exit: 'Let’s see if he’s any good'

Sky Sports’ Ted Kravitz has put the spotlight on technical chief Pierre Wache after Red Bull’s underwhelming start to the 2025 F1 season.

While Max Verstappen sits second in the F1 drivers’ standings after two races, Red Bull have had the fourth-fastest car after the opening two races.

In China, Verstappen spent most of the race in a distant sixth place, running behind the two Ferraris.

Verstappen jumped Lewis Hamilton, who switched to a two-stop strategy, and with Charles Leclerc struggling with tyre degradation due to his front wing damage, moved up to fourth in the closing laps.

Red Bull have struggled considerably with car development since the middle of last year, winning just two of the previous 16 races.

Red Bull’s poor form coincided with Adrian Newey’s departure from the team.

Newey’s exit was announced during the Miami Grand Prix weekend, with the F1 design genius making the switch to Aston Martin for 2025.

Speaking on the latest episode of the Sky F1 podcast, Kravitz questioned whether Wache - who's responsible for the RB21 - can make the improvements needed to take on McLaren.

“Let’s see if they’re really serious about winning the constructors’ because swapping drivers after two races suggests you’re only after the drivers’ and clearly if they win the drivers’ this year that would be a massive win wouldn’t it?” Kravitz said.

“Against Lando and Oscar in a much better Mclaren, that would be clearly the best of Max’s of what would be five in a row so let’s see if they’re serious about winning constructors’.

“Let’s see if Pierre Wache is any good. It’s his car. It’s slower than the McLaren at the moment.

“Adrian Newey hasn’t touched this car. Can he fix it? Can they fix it? Let’s wait and find out.”

Red Bull’s mass exodus

Red Bull are suffering from their own success.

In recent years, they’ve lost a number of high-profile team personnel.

Rob Marshall left the team for McLaren in 2023 - and is widely responsible for the latter’s upturn in form recently.

Jonathan Wheatley is Sauber’s new team principal after a lengthy stint at Red Bull.

Newey bowed out of Red Bull in the middle of last year to take up a role at Aston Martin as their managing technical partner.

Without Verstappen’s on-track brilliance, things would look much worse for Red Bull and Christian Horner.

Horner and Helmut Marko’s leadership has been scrutinised again after their brutal decision to drop Liam Lawson after just two rounds in 2025.

Yuki Tsunoda will take his place at Red Bull alongside Verstappen from this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix.