Red Bull F1’s new Power Unit announces additional Mercedes key hires (Update)

Helmut Marko claims that Mercedes are desperately offering departing staff double their salary in a bid to stop them from leaving for Red Bull.

Having already signed key engineer Ben Hodgkinson from Mercedes, Red Bull announced today that they have signed more personnel from their rival team.

Steve Blewett, Omid Mostaghimi, Pip Clode, Anton Mayo and Steve Brodie are all currently in senior positions at Mercedes, but will join Red Bull once a period of gardening leave has been served.

Marko believes the personnel are joining for a new challenge, and out of sheer passion, rather than finances. This is evidenced by his claims that Mercedes are offering double salaries to try keeping their staff.

“Red Bull is a passionate racing team,” Marko told Motorsport-Magazin.

“It’s all in one house. Mercedes offers people who come to us double the salary if they stay. We don’t.”

Red Bull Powertrains announced the expansion of its senior leadership team as preparations are put in place for the design of its inaugural power unit.

Tasked with developing competitive power units for Red Bull Racing and sister team Scuderia AlphaTauri from 2022 onwards, and charged with the creation of a new power unit to be developed to Formula One regulations currently scheduled for implementation in 2025, Red Bull Powertrains has embarked on a recruitment program aimed at building an expert technical team capable of taking Red Bull’s power unit operation to race and championship-winning success.

Following the recent announcement of Ben Hodgkinson as Technical Director, Red Bull Powertrains has further enhanced its technical capabilities through significant appointments in key areas that will see power unit development fully integrated with chassis design at the Red Bull Technology Campus in Milton Keynes.

SENIOR LEADERSHIP APPOINTMENTS  

PU Production Director – Steve Blewett

Head of Powertrains Electronics and ERS – Omid Mostaghimi

Head of Mechanical Design ERS – Pip Clode

Head of PU Design ICE – Anton Mayo

Group Leader ICE Operations – Steve Brodie

We are also delighted to welcome a new Head of Mechanical Development to the Team, whose name will be announced in the coming weeks.

Red Bull Racing Team Principal and CEO, Christian Horner, said: “Red Bull’s mission to bring all aspects of its Formula One 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 innovativity to the Red Bull Powertrains program and provide us with the strongest possible technical platform for the future.”