F1 Today | Waché’s Red Bull role under pressure, Audi dismiss Horner option

The Frenchman is coming under increasing pressure, with his future as technical director looking more uncertain by the day and a potential exit becoming harder to rule out.

Pre-season concerns had centred around the new Red Bull Ford power unit being the RB22’s main weakness, but that has not materialised. Instead, the car’s biggest issues appear to lie with the chassis, an area that falls directly under Waché’s responsibility.

Internal tension is what mainly complicates the situation. As reported by GPblog, disagreements over development direction and working methods have begun to surface. If a decision has to be made about Waché’s departure, the current Red Bull leadership will surely not hesitate to make it, just as Horner was let go last year.

The former Red Bull CEO and team principal has been loosely linked with a potential move to Audi as a successor to Jonathan Wheatley, but the former Red Bull Racing team boss is not an option for the German outfit, nor is Audi an interesting option for Horner under the current circumstances, GPblog understands.

While Juan Pablo Montoya has highlighted Horner as the kind of high-profile figure Audi could benefit from - pointing to his long-standing success and leadership record in Formula 1 - the German manufacturer is not considering him for the role.

At the same time, it's hard to imagine Horner being interested in joining Audi in a conventional team principal capacity. His focus on a project where he could be a stakeholder, not just an employee.