Red Bull told to replace key man after Max Verstappen disaster as major player singled out

Ralf Schumacher believes that Red Bull need to move on from technical director Pierre Wache if they are to return to World Championship contention. The Frenchman's job security has been intensely scrutinised this season as the Milton Keynes squad have experienced extreme fluctuations in their results.

Red Bull started the campaign on the back foot, and despite Max Verstappen's heroics in Japan and Imola, McLaren's driver pairing raced into a commanding Drivers' Championship lead. This led to Christian Horner's departure in July and the subsequent arrival of Laurent Mekies, who orchestrated a rapid and exciting turnaround.

After finishing third in Zandvoort, Verstappen outscored now-former standings leader Oscar Piastri in five straight race weekends, but in Brazil, things came unstuck. The reigning world champion finished fourth in the sprint and was then shockingly eliminated in Q1 later on Saturday, while title rival Lando Norris stormed to pole position.

With the Dutchman now seemingly set to miss out on a fifth straight F1 crown, Schumacher believes that the time is right to make a change. "Red Bull now faces two tasks: on the one hand, they have to complete the driver line-up for next year," the ex-F1 star told Sky Germany.

"The position of team boss is now well filled, that's done. But in my view, and I know I'm going to get in trouble for this tomorrow, Pierre Waché is not the right man to get a grip on the situation in the long term."

Schumacher added: "We have seen brilliant races from Red Bull, but we see it constantly going up and down. Then the expectations have to be adjusted again.

"At some point, they seem to understand where it has gone wrong, but then again, later it turns out not to. Formula 1 is now just too competitive and too complex to be able to afford that if you want to be champion."

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The returning pressure will not be welcomed by Wache, who has endured a tough season with the Red Bull squad. Only last month, Sky Sports F1 reporter Ted Kravitz suggested that the RB21's unexpected late-season resurgence had saved his job for the foreseeable future.

"It was looking a bit touch-and-go as to whether he was going to be able to: A, turn the car around, and B, if not, hold onto his job," Kravitz confessed. "Not only has he done the first, but that means he's very much done the second. I've got to say well done to him, because there must be a lot of pressure off him personally.

"They had that dip - they were good at the beginning of the year, they were not good in the middle of the year, now they're good again. I think he found the pressure of his job a little bit difficult, as anybody would, and I think it's good, personally for him, that he's managed to turn it around."