Red Bull spies 'very risky' development from F1 title rival

Red Bull technical director Pierre Wache has observed what he feels is a "very risky" development on the car of F1 constructors' championship rival McLaren.

The flexibility of the Woking squad's front and rear wings, which is a contentious issue in F1 at the moment, was of particular interest to the Frenchman.

However, it is the changes the constructors' champion has made to its front suspension for the MCL39 that has really caught Wache's attention.

F1 has just concluded its three-day pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit, where all 10 teams had to the opportunity to run their 2025 cars in anger for the first time.

Whilst testing is not the be-all-end-all of information gathering on rivals, as pace is often concealed and each outfit mainly spends its time focusing on itself, it is still a chance to check out the opposition, as Wache suggested.

"We look at other people’s solutions when we have some time," the 50-year-old said to Canal+. "Some things are interesting, some are less so. The McLaren is very interesting. After all, they have a lot of flexible wings at the front and at the rear.

"Their front suspension is very interesting, but also very risky from our point of view. It will be very interesting to see if they can make it work."

A four-way fight at the sharp end of F1?

Red Bull and McLaren make half of the current leading quartet in F1, with Mercedes and Ferrari rounding out the set. Whilst the Brackley-based squad faired well in Bahrain, there are more question marks surrounding the Scuderia.

Wache thinks the Italian team is an intriguing prospect heading into the new campaign, having narrowly missed out on the constructors' title last term.

Either way, he expects Red Bull to be embroiled in a four-way fight with the other three at the sharp end of the grid in the season to come.

"Ferrari is also interesting," the Frenchman added. "I think they have tried to correct the problems they had in the past. I think it will be a very close fight between four teams."