Mercedes and Red Bull have agreed to terms for Ben Hodgkinson to begin his role as technical director of Red Bull Powertrains in May.
Hodgkinson will join Red Bull after over two decades with Mercedes, where he has recently worked as head of mechanical engineering at Mercedes-Benz High Performance Powertrains.In a joint statement released on social media, Mercedes and Red Bull announced they had come to terms on Hodgkinson’s move from Mercedes’ power unit factory in Brixworth to Red Bull’s new powertrains division in Milton Keynes.
“Under the terms of that agreement, Ben, who joined Mercedes in August 2001, will be free to join Red Bull Powertrains from 24 May 2022,” the statement read.
The agreement comes almost nine months since Hodgkinson’s move to Red Bull was originally announced. At the time of his original appointment, Hodgkinson had admitted “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 have formed their now powertrains wing following power unit supplier Honda’s decision to pull out as a supplier in Formula 1 at the end of last season. Red Bull will continue to run Honda-designed power units for both Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri in 2022, maintained at Red Bull’s Milton Keynes factory.
Hodgkinson’s appointment as technical director for Red Bull’s new power unit division comes after Mercedes continued their sweep of constructors’ championships in Formula 1 since the introduction of V6 turbo hybrid engines in 2014, taking their eighth consecutive title last year.
Red Bull put an end to Mercedes’ dominance of the drivers’ championship in the V6 turbo era at the end of last season, when Max Verstappen was crowned world champion in the season finale in Abu Dhabi.
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