Red Bull 'exotic funky bits' catching the eye despite loss of 'great mind'

Red Bull is still delivering what has been described as "exotic" and "funky bits" on its RB22 this season, despite the fact that Adrian Newey is no longer with the team.

With technical director Pierre Waché now firmly in charge of the programme following Newey's departure to Aston Martin, Red Bull appeared to initially struggle last year, leading to inconsistent results for four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen.

It was not until after the summer break that Waché and his team managed to get on top of the RB21's issues, sparking a stunning championship charge from Verstappen that saw him win six of the final nine races and fall just two points shy of clinching five titles in a row.

Although the RB22 has been a long time in the making, given the wide-sweeping changes to the regulations, the confidence gained from the performance late last year will have been inspirational in the design of this year's challenger.

That can be seen from the concepts witnessed on the car in testing so far.

Former F1 driver Karun Chandhok has conceded to being "fascinated by the Red Bull story", in particular as "the architects of the current technical situation, in terms of being their own engine manufacturer, are gone. That was a decision made by Adrian Newey, Christian Horner and Helmut Marko. All gone!"

Chandhok is pleased, however, to see that Waché has continued the Red Bull tradition of trying to be innovative.

"So now, Laurent Mekies and Ben Hodgkinson have had to pick up the reins and run with it," added Chandhok, speaking on Sky Sports F1.

"And this is a whole new era for Pierre Waché. He doesn't have the big halo of the great mind of Adrian Newey above him. He's in charge of it, and the buck stops with him.

"You have to say, the second half of last year, they would have breathed a sigh of relief, because after a shaky 12 months, they got back on track.

"That would have given them confidence to do exotic things this year, because it means their correlation is back on track, and what they're seeing on the CFD and in the wind tunnel is translating to on-track performance, which they started to get in the second half of the year.

"They didn't have that, really, from the middle of '24. So I'm pleased to see they're going out on a limb and still doing funky bits on the car."