Red Bull breaks silence on speculations of a major technical directive in Miami leading to the car's loss of form

Red Bull technical director Pierre Wache has dismissed claims that the team changed the car in Miami in 2024 and that led to a decline in performance. The 2024 F1 season began on a positive note for the team as the car had a decent lead over the chasing pack.

Max Verstappen, on his part, capitalized on this and was a multiple race winner, only losing out in Australia when his car broke down. All of this changed from Miami onwards; the Dutch driver did not have the fastest car under him as McLaren's upgrade package completely closed the gap.

From that point onwards, while Red Bull continued to regress, McLaren continued to get better and won the constructors' championship. While Verstappen rescued the drivers' championship win for himself, the team couldn't win, and suspicions were raised on whether the Austrian team had to make changes to the car in Miami that led to the drastic drop. In an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com's Dutch edition, Pierre Wache clarified that this was not the case. He said:

"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. But to be fair, in Miami we should have won the race. However, we were not the quickest any more. We were even and clearly something changed in terms of what was done, especially by McLaren."

He added:

"They were able to have less tyre degradation than everybody else and their package seemed to work very well afterwards. I don't know what they have done, you have to ask them and not me. But I know about ourselves and what we have done with the car. The behaviour of the car was similar to what we had in China."

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Red Bull surprised by the step rivals teams made in Miami

Pierre Wache stated that the bigger surprise didn't come from how Red Bull itself performed because that was more or less in line with what the team had expected. The surprise came from the jump that the rivals made. From Miami onwards, both Ferrari and McLaren were on par with the Austrian team, something that had not been the case earlier. He said:

"I think we were more surprised by the step of the others. Also if you see what they have done [with updates], it was not massive… it was more that the whole car came together, so it was a very big surprise. [The speculation] doesn't affect me."

He added:

"It doesn't change the fact that every weekend I have the pressure to deliver the best car and that the team has the pressure to deliver the best car to win the race. The speculation and what happens around it doesn't change the way you react to things. I have enough pressure and I don't need to create anything more for myself."

Red Bull's 2024 F1 season did have a title win, but losing the constructors' was a big blow to the team, especially since it did not even finish second in the championship.

The 2025 F1 season will see Red Bull field a new lineup that the team will hope to be a better one than what Sergio Perez offered alongside Max Verstappen.