Pierre Waché is a French Formula 1 engineer and the Technical Director of Oracle Red Bull Racing, responsible for the design and production of the team's cars. He has become the team's most senior engineering figure following the departure of design legend Adrian Newey. ¹²

He was born 10 December 1974 in Auchel, in the Pas-de-Calais region of northern France, and earned a doctorate in fluid dynamics from the National Polytechnic Institute of Lorraine in Nancy, with an academic specialism in bio-mechanical engineering before he turned to motorsport. ¹³

“" Waché is a fluid-dynamics specialist whose career in F1 spans tyres, vehicle performance and full car design.”

Early career at Michelin

Waché entered motorsport in 2001 with Michelin, working on the French manufacturer's Formula 1 tyre programme as an engineer focused on the interaction between tyres and track conditions. He stayed through to Michelin's withdrawal from F1 at the end of 2006. ¹

BMW Sauber and Sauber

He was then recruited by BMW Sauber as a performance engineer, working on tyres and suspension. When BMW announced its exit from the sport, Waché stepped up in 2009 to become head of vehicle performance at Sauber, taking over a role previously held by Loïc Serra. During this period he worked with a young Sergio Pérez. ¹³

Red Bull Racing

Waché joined Red Bull Racing in 2013 as chief engineer for vehicle performance and within months was appointed performance director, succeeding Mark Ellis. In 2018 he was promoted to Technical Director, taking charge of the design and production of the car while working under chief technical officer Adrian Newey. He was a central figure in the run of championship-winning cars during the Max Verstappen era, contributing to the RB16B, RB18 and RB19 that delivered three straight titles from 2021 to 2023. ¹³

Leading the post-Newey era

Newey stepped back from day-to-day F1 design in May 2024 and joined Aston Martin from March 2025, leaving Waché with full oversight of Red Bull's car design. The RB21 was the first Red Bull challenger since the RB2 not designed by Newey and the first developed under Waché's sole technical leadership; a tier of senior staff — head of performance engineering Ben Waterhouse, chief engineer Paul Monaghan, chief designer Craig Skinner and head of aerodynamics Enrico Balbo — now reports beneath him. ¹⁴

The 2026 challenge

As Red Bull moves into the 2026 regulations and its own power-unit programme with Ford, Waché's department carries a far broader brief than before. He has described the in-house engine project candidly, calling it a "massive challenge" and praising the team for building an engine "as a start up... in three and a half years" without "looking stupid on track," while playing down talk that Red Bull is the 2026 benchmark: "everyone knows it's a game everyone is playing." After a difficult start to 2026, team principal Laurent Mekies publicly defended Waché, calling outside criticism of him "unfair." ⁵⁶

Bottom line

Waché is a fluid-dynamics specialist whose career in F1 spans tyres, vehicle performance and full car design. Having quietly built the technical structure beneath Newey, he now leads it outright, making him one of the most important figures in Red Bull's effort to remain competitive through the sport's biggest regulation reset in a generation. ¹²