Red Bull “didn’t change car for Miami” amid speculation over 2024 swing

Red Bull did not make any changes to its car ahead of the 2024 Miami Grand Prix, according to technical director Pierre Wache, who asserts that it was the other teams’ progress through the year that produced a swing in form.

After Max Verstappen took largely dominant victories in Japan and China, he was beaten by Lando Norris – who was helped by the timing of the safety car – at the Miami round as McLaren benefitted from a wealth of updates to its MCL38.

This put McLaren firmly among the frontrunners and ensured that Red Bull came under much greater scrutiny over 2024.

Later in the year, the regulations were clarified regarding asymmetric braking systems, which were officially banned by the new wording. This prompted accusations that Red Bull had run an equivalent system and was now hurting from the new ruling – but this was denied by the FIA at the time.

Wache confirmed that Red Bull did not need to make any changes to its braking system, and said there was no smoking gun in their car set-ups which would suggest why the team dropped back.

“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 Motorsport.com’s Dutch edition.

“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.

“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.

“We brought an upgrade in Suzuka and in China and those things were working very well. In Miami, we were more or less there but during the rac,e we saw that McLaren found the sweet spot in terms of their performance.

Asked specifically about the accusations of asymmetric braking, Wache reiterated that “the car didn’t change, just to make it clear. There was also nothing fundamental in the car set-up either that could explain why we were slower.”

Wache admitted that it came as a “surprise” to Red Bull that its rival teams were able to improve so quickly with limited updates, suggesting that it was simply their cars ‘coming together’ with set-up choices and minor changes.

He added that the speculation over Red Bull’s comparative slide did not affect him personally, citing that the pressure to produce the best car had already been ceaseless.

“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. 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.”