Who is Pierre Wache? The face of Red Bull project after Adrian Newey's departure explored

After Red Bull officially announced that Adrian Newey would be leaving the team in 2025, many started debating about who would lead the design team after the Brit's exit. After Newey, Pierre Wache is the next Red Bull staff that would most likely take charge.

Pierre Wache is a French F1 engineer who earned a doctorate in fluid dynamics from the National Polytechnic Institute of Lorraine. After graduating in 2001, he directly dipped his toes in F1, working with tire manufacturer Michelin, who provided tires to some of the teams. He worked as an engineer, focusing on the interaction between the tire and the track.

After Michelin left F1 in 2006, Pierre Wache joined the BMW Sauber team as a performance engineer responsible for tires and suspension. When BMW also left the sport in 2009, he was promoted to head of vehicle performance at Sauber.

The French engineer once again jumped ship and moved to Red Bull as chief engineer, focusing on vehicle performance. Soon enough, he was promoted to performance director. By that time, he had started working closely with Adrian Newey, who had already been with the Austrian team since 2006.

In 2018, Wache became Newey's right-hand man and took on the role of technical director. He, along with his senior Adrian Newey, supervised the design and overall production of the car.

He has been one of the integral parts of Red Bull, helping them develop some of the most dominant cars. He was part of the development of the RB16B, which famously allowed Max Verstappen to win his maiden world championship in the intense 2021 F1 season.

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Christian Horner addresses Pierre Wache's leadership, claiming Red Bull is not entirely 'reliant' on Adrian Newey

Back in December 2023, Christian Horner talked about how Red Bull was not completely reliant on Adrian Newey.

Speaking to Motorsport.com, Horner initially praised Newey and stated that the aero wizard played a massive part in Red Bull's success story. However, he stated that the team was not reliant on Newey and added that the design team was led by technical officer Pierre Wache.

"Adrian is a big part of this team and big part of what we've achieved. But of course, his role has evolved over the last few years and the technical team beneath him led by Pierre Wache, they're doing a wonderful job and so that they're not reliant on Adrian," Horner said.

As of now, Adrian Newey would step back from the team's F1 operations and focus on finishing their supercar, RB17. The team officially announced that he would depart after the first quarter of 2025.