Red Bull has signed five more people from Mercedes to key roles in its new Formula One engine division.
Red Bull will manufacturer its own engines from 2022 onwards following the withdrawal of Honda at the end of this season. It has already poached one of Mercedes’ senior power unit enginers, Ben Hodgkinson, to head up the engine division, called Red Bull Powertrains, based at a new building at its UK facility in Milton Keynes.
The team will purchase the designs of the existing Honda engine to continue to use it during the upcoming freeze on engine development, while preparing its in-house engine department for new regulations in 2025.
On Thursday, Red Bull announced more people to join the division, all from Mercedes, which has had the dominant engine since the introduction of V6 turbo engines in 2014.
• Steve Blewett, Mercedes’ head of manufacturing, becomes Red Bull’s power unit production director
• Omid Mostaghimi, Mercedes’ F1 electronics team leader, becomes Red Bull’s head of mechanical design ERS
• Anton Mayo, Mercedes engineering team leader, becomes head of Red Bull’s power unit design internal combustion engine (ICE)
• Steve Brodie, Mercedes’ F1 trackside and final inspection manager, becomes Red Bull’s group leader ICE operations
• Pip Clode, Mercedes’ F1 power unit concept team leader, becomes Red Bull’s head of mechanical design ERS.
Red Bull will also name a new head of mechanical development in the next few weeks.
Red Bull’s F1 boss Christian Horner said: “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.
“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 innovation to the Red Bull Powertrains programme and provide us with the strongest possible technical platform for the future.”