Red Bull Racing has made is first official hiring for its new Powertrains division, with Ben Hodgkinson, joining in to work on F1 engines for 2022 and beyond.
Hodgkinson comes in with a wealth of experience, having worked in WRC and also designed turbo charged Le Mans engines. Post that he joined Ilmor Racing and worked at Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains, where he was its Head of Engineering.
He will leave his current role and join Red Bull Powertrains in Technical Director capacity, whenever his terms with HPP is fulfilled. Hodgkinson will be have a key leadership role heading up all technical aspects with a key focus on developing Red Bull’s inaugural power unit, to comply with the new Formula One regulations currently planned for 2025.
“We are delighted to welcome Ben to Red Bull Powertrains as Technical Director,” said Christian Horner. “He 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.
“When Red Bull announced the creation of Red Bull Powertrains it was also announcing a new phase of the company’s ambition in Formula One – to bring every aspect of car design in-house and to put our destiny in our own hands.
“The ultimate expression of that is the development of a Red Bull power unit to meet the next generation of Formula One engine regulations. Ben’s appointment signals our long-term intent and we will support him and his team with every available resource required in order to succeed,” summed up Horner.
At the same time, Hodgkinson added: “I’m extremely excited to be joining Red Bull Powertrains as Technical Director. It was not easy to make the decision to leave HPP after almost 20 years but the opportunity to take on such a far-reaching and important project is a great honour. Red Bull is a serious player in Formula One and have been our biggest rival in the hybrid era, so I’m looking forward to seeing what we can achieve together in this new phase of the company’s journey.”
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