While Red Bull will recover Honda engine technology to manufacture its engine in-house from 2022, the firm confirmed this Friday the arrival of Ben Hodgkinson, who is leaving the Mercedes engine department.
Red Bull Racing has decided to surround itself well for its new challenge. With the announced withdrawal of its current engine manufacturer Honda, the Milton Keynes-based team has decided to build its engines themselves, which will also be supplied to sister team AlphaTauri. To do this, it has reached an agreement with the Japanese manufacturer to recover the intellectual property and thus found an entity called Red Bull Powertrains which will be in charge of manufacturing the engines, whose characteristics will be frozen until 2025. A new activity which will now be headed by a recruit directly from Mercedes.
Indeed, through a press release, Red Bull Racing has confirmed the arrival in its ranks of Ben Hodgkinson, former director of mechanical engineering in the “High Performance Powertrains” branch of the German manufacturer., based in Brixworth and responsible for the engines of the Silver Arrows.
? « Ben comes to this hugely exciting project as a proven race winner and as an innovator capable of leading a like-minded team of highly skilled engineers. » More from Christian ? https://t.co/GUDiIeU8Up
— Red Bull Racing Honda (@redbullracing) April 23, 2021
Red Bull Racing intends to perpetuate its motor activity
An arrival announced this Friday but which will not materialize at first, due to the clauses of the contract binding the engineer to his former employer. ” We are delighted to welcome Ben as CTO at Red Bull Powertrains, confided Christian Horner, director of the team, in this press release. He joins this very exciting project having proven that he can win races and that he is an innovator able to lead a team of highly qualified and like-minded engineers. ”An arrival which suggests that the experience of engine manufacturer of Red Bull Racing will go beyond the 2024 season and the end of the current formula.
“When Red Bull announced the creation of Red Bull Powertrains, it was also the opening of a new phase of the company’s ambitions in F1: to make every aspect of the car ourselves and to have our destiny in our hands. , adds the boss of the Austrian team. The ultimate expression is the development of a Red Bull power unit for the next engine regulation in F1. Recruiting Ben underscores our long-term intention, and we will support him and his team with all available resources to be successful. “A new project that Ben Hodgkinson presents” an immense honor “.
