F1 News: Mercedes Chief Responds To Losing Staff To Red Bull Powertrains
Red Bull Powertrains is currently in charge of developing the 2026 hybrid F1 car for Red Bull Racing. Their new 5000-sq.ft plant in Milton Keynes would employ 500 people once the adjacent building meant for the development of the energy recovery system has been built.
Consequently, one might expect Red Bull to hire staff that is looking to switch roles from Mercedes's Formula 1 engine manufacturer High Performance Powertrains (HPP). And that is what exactly happened.
Red Bull Powertrains recently hired technical director Ben Hodgkinson, who was head of mechanical engineering at High Performance Powertrains. Similarly, head of ICE operations Steve Brodie who was the final inspection manager at Mercedes was recently hired by Red Bull.
However, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff remains unaffected by the changes. According to Wolff, such transitions happen behind the curtains in F1. Recruitment is an ongoing process for all teams and quite naturally, staff from one manufacturer could find themselves elsewhere. He explains:
“It is a very ambitious project with Red Bull Powertrains and a very courageous project.
"HPP has 1,000 employees and we lost some to Red Bull in the same way we lost some to Ferrari, to Renault, and indeed, the other way around.
"You know, we are not bragging about any people that have joined us from Red Bull. I won’t mention any names. We have a constant influx of Red Bull people, as we have from the other teams.
“The two of us are often discussing that. It is happening all the time.
"And so, the people they’ve hired, we wish them the best. Some of them were retired from our organisation and ended up there in a leading position, but that’s fine. They’ve been given a second lifeline.”
Wolff and Red Bull Chief Christian Horner are often found to lock horns on such matters. Recently, Horner spoke about how the 50-50 internal combustion to electric power ratio in the 2026 F1 car could compromise the wheel-to-wheel essence of the sport.
Wolff reacted to his remarks by stating that Red Bull dreaded the changes that are in line for 2026, fearing the loss of domination on the grid that they currently enjoy.