How Red Bull could help Ferrari's 'time-consuming puzzle'

The Red Bull storm is far from subsiding after the allegations against Christian Horner.

The moments of uncertainty seem to be exploited by the competition: according to recent rumours, Ferrari seems to have intensified contact with members of the technical department at Milton Keynes.

This is said to be an attack on the "magic circle" of engineers around technical director Pierre Waché. Those engineers hold roles at the second, executive, level, but that doesn't make them any less important.

It seems that there are at least three engineers at Red Bull - their names currently unknown - who occupy the crucial position of engineering and planned developments for the car. They know in detail the evolution plans of the RB20 and the timing of the update packages - a wealth of information that no team should underestimate, especially with 2025 in mind.

Gardening leave

Everyone is convinced that, next year, all teams will focus exclusively on 2026, when the new regulations come into effect and Red Bull is no exception to that rule.

Therefore, it is likely that updates in the second part of this season will be no less frequent than in the first part as teams will then try to lay the groundwork for next year's car.

Knowing Red Bull's approach to development for 2025 could be a weapon to drastically reduce the gap to the team. The integration of new engineers has also been made easier because they don't have to spend as long on gardening leave - where engineers or other executives move from one team to another and must first bridge a period of time away from employment. This prevents too much information from being transferred unintentionally.

That Ferrari may want to strengthen the team with less prominent figures, while also paving the way for the arrival of big names, is part of the strategy. Team boss Fred Vasseur reportedly acquired the services of Loïc Serra from Mercedes, although final details have yet to be finalised.

The Scuderia wants to finalise the technical ranks before the start of the 2026 project. A time-consuming puzzle, but the events of recent weeks could just speed up the process.