Red Bull Racing continues to bolster its engine department at the expense of Formula 1 rival Mercedes, which has lost a further five employees to Red Bull’s new Powertrains division.
Red Bull has been on a recruitment drive for the engine department that will continue to develop and prepare the Honda power units it will use through 2024, but its long-term plan is to develop its own power unit to meet the 2025 regulations.
In April the team announced that Ben Hodgkinson would join from Mercedes High Performance Powertrains (HPP) to head up the 2025 project, taking up the position of technical director.
On Thursday Red Bull Powertrains confirmed the appointment of five further senior figures, all of which will join from Mercedes HPP.
Steve Blewett will become PU production director (previously head of manufacturing at HPP), Omid Mostaghimi joins in the role of head of powertrains electronics and ERS (previously head of electronics at HPP).
Pip Clode will become head of mechanical design ERS (previously F1 team leader PU concept at HPP), whilst Anton Mayo will become head of PU design ICE (previously mechanical engineer at HPP).
Steve Brodie joins at group leader ICE operations (he previously worked for HPP as F1 trackside and final inspection manager).
Red Bull also teased a new head of mechanical development, saying a name would be “announced in the coming weeks.”
“Red Bull’s mission to bring all aspects of its Formula 1 operations in-house through Red Bull Powertrains is an enormously exciting undertaking but also an extremely demanding one, and we know that success will only be achieved by bringing in the best and brightest talent, by providing them with the right tools and by creating the right environment in which they can thrive,” Red Bull Racing team principal and CEO, Christian Horner, said.
“Today’s key leadership team appointments demonstrate our strong commitment to those goals and we certainly benefit from our campus being located in the UK where we have access to a huge wealth of engineering talent.
“Working with our new Technical Director, Ben Hodgkinson, and alongside key personnel retained from Honda Racing Development, each of the senior personnel announced today bring a wealth of experience, expertise and innovativity to the Red Bull Powertrains programme and provide us with the strongest possible technical platform for the future.”
