Wache after Friday in Austin: 'Finding the right balance'

Published on 24 October 2026 by Niels Hendrix

Pierre Waché, technical director of Oracle Red Bull Racing, said after Friday in Austin: “The set-up we are running is less stiff than last year, but the car is still not compliant enough over the bumps, which made today quite challenging as finding the right balance was more difficult than expected. The main challenge this weekend is managing tyre degradation over the long runs while making sure the compromises we make for race pace don’t cost us too much in qualifying.”

Waché continued: “We had a steering issue on Max’s car in FP1, which we managed to resolve, and we saw some improvements with the set-up in FP2. With the high-speed corners in sector 1, pushing the tyres too hard early on can compromise the rest of the lap. We are focused on improving our low-speed performance and, while the race is our priority, we also want to put ourselves in the strongest possible position for qualifying.”