Red Bull technical director Pierre Wache has denied that the team made any adjustments to its car ahead of the 2024 Miami Grand Prix. Wache clarified that it was the progress made by other teams, rather than a shift in Red Bull’s performance, that led to the noticeable change in form during the race.
Despite Max Verstappen’s dominant wins in Japan and China, the Miami GP saw a stunning upset when Lando Norris, aided by a well-timed safety car, beat Verstappen to take the victory. McLaren’s MCL38, which had been extensively updated, proved to be a major factor in the shift, pushing McLaren into contention and increasing scrutiny on Red Bull’s performance for the 2024 season.
Following the race, some speculated that the revised regulations on asymmetric braking systems—which were officially banned—had adversely affected Red Bull, given the team’s previous use of similar systems. However, Wache firmly rejected these claims, asserting that Red Bull’s braking system had not changed and that no major changes were made to the car’s setup.
“We didn’t change the car; we didn’t change the way we set up the car, so it looks like it’s more the others that did a big change instead of us,” Wache said in an exclusive interview with Autosport.
Reflecting on the Miami race, Wache acknowledged that Red Bull should have won but admitted that McLaren’s improved performance caught the team by surprise.
“They were able to have less tyre degradation than everybody else, and their package seemed to work very well,” he explained. “I don’t know what they have done, you have to ask them and not me.”
Wache also addressed the speculation surrounding asymmetric braking, reaffirming that there was no fundamental change to the car’s setup that could explain Red Bull’s relative drop in performance.
“We were more or less there in Miami, but during the race we saw that McLaren found the sweet spot in terms of their performance,” he added. “There was nothing in our setup or car that could explain why we were slower.”
The Red Bull technical director expressed surprise at how quickly rival teams, especially McLaren, had improved with limited updates, suggesting that the rapid development could simply be attributed to fine-tuning and setup choices.
Quote Note:
The Miami GP sparked renewed attention on Red Bull’s car setup, with the team maintaining that the shift in performance was largely due to competitors’ rapid improvements, not any fundamental changes on their part.
