Ben Hodgkinson is reportedly to join at Red Bull, as technical director and will be ultimately responsible for Red Bull’s engines.
Hodgkinson was a major factor behind the great successes that Mercedes celebrated in recent years. And Mercedes has been at the forefront of engines for many years and Red Bull has struggled to keep up with the Mercedes drivers in recent years.
“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.” Hodgkinson said.
“Red Bull is a serious player in Formula 1 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.” he added.
According to Red Bull, Hodgkinson must start working on future power sources that will allow Red Bull to compete for world championships.
“We are delighted to welcome Ben to Red Bull Powertrains as technical director,” Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said.
“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.
Red Bull will be using Honda’s engines in-house from 2022 and wants to develop its own power source for after 2025, when Formula 1 introduces a new generation of sustainable hybrid engines.
The Japanese engine supplier will stop in F1 at the end of season, but will make its engines and technological knowledge available to Red Bull for another three years.
The Austrian racing team has opened a technical department at the factory in Milton Keynes, England, especially for the maintenance and development of the engines.
