With so much speculation going on at Red Bull Racing right now, it’s going to be fascinating to see how this affects Max Verstappen’s future.
Theoretically, Max Verstappen is going to be at Red Bull until the end of the 2028 season but as Lewis Hamilton has shown at Mercedes, contracts don’t necessarily guarantee anything.
Speaking on The Race Podcast, journalists Glenn Freeman and Edd Straw were discussing the biggest news to break ahead of the Miami Grand Prix.
Adrian Newey confirmed in the build-up to the second Sprint Race weekend of the season that he would be ending his time with Red Bull ahead of the 2025 season.
The 65-year-old has been instrumental to Red Bull’s success over the past two decades but will be moving onto pastures new at the end of the current campaign.
That means Newey is going to need to be replaced within the Red Bull camp which is no easy task.
However, Max Verstappen is said to be a ‘big believer’ in Pierre Wache who could be set to step up at Red Bull.
That is if Ferrari don’t make a move to try and sign the 49-year-old alongside the departing Newey…
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Max Verstappen a ‘big believer’ in Red Bull technical whizz Pierre Wache
At the start of 2024, Max Verstappen looked set for years of domination with Red Bull after a historically strong campaign the previous year.
However, internal politics and disharmony have suddenly brought that idea into question.
So much so, that Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff now believes he can sign Verstappen as Lewis Hamilton’s replacement – an idea that was previously unthinkable a few months ago.
The Dutchman has a clause in his contract that allows him to leave if Helmut Marko departs and his relationship with Christian Horner means that’s no longer out of the question.
The first key member of staff to confirm he’s leaving the team is Adrian Newey, someone described as being even more important in the driver’s market than Verstappen himself.
Red Bull’s success is not built on Newey or Verstappen alone and Pierre Wache could be the man to step up in his place.
The technical director has been suggested as the potential successor for Newey when he officially leaves the team.
And if he’s got a good relationship with the three-time world champion, then that would minimise any disruption.
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Pierre Wache has big shoes to fill if he replaces Adrian Newey
Talking about the ongoing situation at Red Bull, Freeman said: “Josh [Suttill] briefly mentioned [Max] Verstappen there, our understanding is that Verstappen is a big believer in [Pierre] Wache.
“So, I don’t think he’ll be particularly concerned by this announcement.”
Edd Straw added: “I think there’s every reason to be confident in Wache, but there’s even more reason to be confident in Wache and Newey together.”
Verstappen and Wache will need to have a good relationship for Red Bull’s success to continue beyond 2024.
Newey will be with the team for long enough to oversee the design of next season’s car even if he’s taking a step back from the Formula 1 side of the business.
However, Wache may then have to oversee his first car without the design genius going into a season with major regulation changes.
That will be extremely challenging and if Verstappen gets a sniff that the car isn’t looking up to scratch, he may suddenly take more of an interest in Mercedes’s advances.
