Following the recent announcement of Ben Hodgkinson as technical director, Red Bull Powertrains (RBP) has announced a number of further appointments to its power unit development team, having been on a poaching spree of Mercedes-Benz HPE (MBHPE) employees.
These included the appointment of Steve Blewett, formerly head of manufacturing at MBHPE, as PU production director; Omid Mostaghimi, whose previous position was F1 electronics team leader at Brixworth, as head of powertrain electronics and ERS; and Pip Clode to head up mechanical ERS design, who leaves the role of team leader, F1 power unit concept, at Mercedes.
They will be joined by two further former MBHPE colleagues, with Anton Mayo directing design of the ICE and Steve Brodie as group leader, ICE operations. RBP also stated that it would soon announce a head of mechanical development in the coming weeks.
According to team principal and CEO Christian Horner, “Red Bull’s mission to bring all aspects of its Formula 1 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 brings a wealth of experience, expertise and innovation to the Red Bull Powertrains program and provide us with the strongest possible technical platform for the future.”