Wheatley or Waché [or Berger] to replace Horner as Red Bull boss?
F1 NewsFriday, 16 February 2024 at 15:15
Amid a 'civil war' at Red Bull, with long-time team principal Christian Horner in the spotlight ahead of the 2024 Formula 1 season, an internal investigation into his conduct has opened a cupboard full of skeletons at the team he has led since 2005.
Despite his job being on the line, Horner was present and played a starring role during the launch of the Red Bull RB20 on its rainy day shakedown at Silverstone. Inevitably, the internal investigation saga overshadowed the revelation of the sleek new car that Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez will campaign for this season.
However, inevitably questions were raised before and during the event. Will Horner be in his seat on the RBR pit wall during testing in Bahrain next week? What about his presence at the 2024 F1 season season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix a week later? And beyond that?
More than once during the day speaking to media at Silverstone this week, Horner denied the allegations made by a female staff member during the RB20 launch day. He also confirmed he had support from Red Bull shareholders, as well as his wife, former Spice Girl, Geri Halliwell Horner while co-operating and respecting the due process.
On the driver front, Mick Schumacher is the Mercedes substitute should HAM or RUS be unable to race. However, who will be Horner's substitute should he be forced to quit the team, or be temporarily suspended?
If Horner is terminated as Red Bull F1 team boss who will replace him?
The top candidates are likely to be Technical Director Pierre Waché or Sporting Director Jonathan Wheatley. And why not throw in Gerhard Berger for good measure?
Relatively lowkey and by far not as high profile as Horner or even Adrian Newey, the 49-year-old Frenchman is the team's Technical Director. Normally off the media radar was on stage when the RB20 was presented this week.
Waché's Red Bull bio states: Pierre has been a member of our senior technical group since joining Red Bull Racing in 2013. He holds a PhD in Fluid Mechanics, studying at the Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine in Nancy and Georgia Tech, Atlanta.
Waché's academic speciality was bio-mechanical engineering, studying the interaction between cells in the bloodstream but found he had "racing in his blood" too: "My passion was more the technical aspects of science and engineering."
Michelin recruited Waché in 2001 to study the interaction between track surfaces and the rubber of their Formula 1 tyres, becoming a project leader at Michelin, responsible for adherence and simulation for F1.
Waché: In Formula 1 the only limitation is... yourself
When Michelin pulled out of F1, Waché moved to BMW-Sauber as a vehicle performance engineer, working predominantly with tyres and suspension. He became head of the Swiss team's vehicle performance group, and then, in 2012, a member of Sauber's technical committee, responsible for race engineering and vehicle performance.
The Saubers of that period were competitive, largely thanks to an ability to be gentle on tyres and run highly effective extreme strategies. Red Bull gained that know-how when the team recruited Pierre at the beginning of 2013.
Originally Chief Engineer of Performance Engineering, and also head of the vehicle dynamics department, before becoming RBR technical director at the beginning of 2018.
Why does Pierre enjoy F1? "Because it's the only place in the world where you have a real engineering competition. For an engineer, this is wonderful. In a normal industry, the competition is on the business side. You try to sell more, make a better product of course, but you never compare the products like-for-like. Here you have the rules and you try to make the best product out of it. The only limitation is... yourself.
"The technical limitation is the brain – and for me, this is what makes me want to come to work every morning. You don't have to be a driver, or on the pitwall, or working on a pitstop, even back at the factory you are a competitor – and when you have a victory it's... fantastic," declared Waché.
Wheatley: We really enjoy our racing, it’s not just a cliché
Red Bull Racing Sporting Director Jonathan Wheatley is the other candidate as a possible Horner replacement. One of the two most likely if sense prevails. But this is F1, this is Red Bull in uncertain times.
On the Red Bull website, Wheatley's bio states: "Jonathan started his F1 career at Benetton as a mechanic in the early nineties. Rising to the position of Race Team Chief Mechanic in 2001 before choosing to leave the team at the height of its success as a F1 championship winner with Fernando Alonso.
Since 2006, Red Bull's second season as an F1 Constructor Jonathan has been a feature on their pit wall ever since and has been highly influential in the race team’s development and successes.
Wheatley "gets things done" is the consensus that RBR insiders have on his management style. Why are the Red Bull pitstops the best on the planet? Jonathan.
The 56-year-old Briton said of RBR: “I’m tremendously proud of this Team and I love every second of working here. We’ve created an inclusive environment where everyone is valued. We really enjoy our racing. You can see it in the people in the garage. It’s not just a cliché.”
That racing has seen Red Bull become the most dominant force ever seen in F1. Last year's trouncing of their nine rival teams, with Verstappen inflicting most of the damage and Perez, doing enough to secure 1-2 in the 2023 F1 Drivers standings, a feat never before accomplished by the team, not even during their first golden era with Mark Vettel and Mark Webber.
Wheatley says of himself: “It’s a veneer, I try to not ever raise my voice because rarely does it do any good – but if there’s a whole load of things building up, then I can be short with people! I think I’m pretty good under pressure. I’ve been in F1 for a long time, been in most situations, and thought about them a lot.
"Usually, I’m working through scenarios of what might go wrong so when it does go wrong, it might sound like I'm being clever or calm in the moment – but actually it’s just the hours and hours of thought that’s gone on in the background… or maybe I’m just a sociopath!” joked Wheatley.
Others in the Red Bull fold? Newey? Marko? Berger?
Another internal option would be to entice RBR Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey to the role of TP which is highly, highly unlikely for the long term, but perhaps a realistic stop-gap should the Horner be suspended or has to leave.
However, it should be noted, that Mattia Binotto flopped as Ferrari's team principal. Being a genius engineer, which he is, did not translate to being a good F1 team principal, less so for the sport's most famous team. That level of brainpower needs freedom from stress to excel, anything else distracts from making the car go faster which is the point of motorsport. Not social media likes.
What about Helmut Marko? Hard to see it, even as interim RBR team boss. At his age of 80, plus his demeanour and often politically incorrect utterances will be media fodder.
Finally, worth considering no matter how out of left-field it may sound, another option might be to keep the senior posts - Wheatley, Waché, Newey and Marko - unruffled as they are, running smoothly as they have been under Horner's watch. Keep the momentum from last year's organisation flowing into this year, and simply find a diplomatic and hassle-free 'outsider' to run the show for the season ahead.
For this, Austrian ex-F1 driver and former Toro Rosso team principal Gerhard Berger springs to mind as an option worth considering. Under his watch, Vettel scored the organisation's first victory at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix, before the senior RBR team opened their victory account in the top flight.
Berger also ran DTM,as well as the family trucking business and has vast senior management experience at all racing levels, having driven for Ferrari and McLaren, as well as Benetton, Arrows and ATS. The 64-year-old Austrian, with strong Red Bull connections, would be tasked to front the team and handle the PR BS that F1 Team Principals normally do on race weekends.
This would allow everyone within the team to get on with their jobs and for it to be "business as usual" at the Red Bull headquarters in Milton Keynes, even with Horner absent.
Meanwhile, the internal investigation on their F1 team boss conducted by a Red Bull board-appointed barrister has yet to release its findings, with reports suggesting nothing will happen until at least next week. Watch this space.
Big Question: Who would you pick, Pierre Waché or Jonathan Wheatley to replace Horner as Red Bull F1 boss? Or Gerhard Berger?
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