Formula 1 News: Aston Martin poaches Red Bull engineer

Andor Hegedus, a Senior Project Designer at Red Bull Racing who helped the team achieve sub-2-second pit stops, has left to work for Aston Martin.

He posted on his Linkedin page “After 9 incredible years, today is my last day at Red Bull Racing. I was hoping I wouldn’t get too emotional today, but what was I thinking…

“I came to Milton Keynes as a junior design engineer all the way back in 2014. Which doesn’t sound like that long ago, but yes, it’s almost been a decade. When Marussia F1 Team where I worked before went into administration, Red Bull offered me a job that I could start the next week. Maybe it was luck, maybe I was at the right place at the right time, but that doesn’t change the fact that back then, that opportunity meant the world to me (I literally jumped up and down with joy/disbelief when I was told on the phone that I got the job).

“The technical knowledge I gained from people around me over the years is invaluable, turned me into the engineer that I am today. But I think people’s positive attitude, friendliness, professionalism, sense of humor and also relentless push for getting better at what we do has rubbed off on me too.

“Becoming F1 Constructors World champions with the Red Bull team last year (first one for me) was a motorsport engineer’s dream come true.

“But by far, and I mean by FAR, the achievement that I am most proud of… is the innovation WE have done on the pit stop side a few years ago.

“Instead of looking at others, we concentrated on ourselves, head down, and just pushed our own limits.

“When we said we’d like to do sub 2 second pit stops, people doubted and laughed at us, then after years of work we did exactly that.

“I know our world record has been beaten now after 4 years, but the numbers 1.82 will always have a special place in my heart.”……….

“Going green for the next chapter. I’m happy to share that I’ve started a new position as Senior Project Designer at Aston Martin F1 Team!”