Red Bull make important change following Christian Horner's departure

Red Bull is set to make a major change to the structure of its new Powertrains division following the axing of Christian Horner.  Formed in 2021, Red Bull Powertrains is currently developing the first in-house Red Bull F1 engine for the '26 season, with Horner still listed as a director on Companies House following his removal from operational duties and dismissal as team principal and CEO on July 9th.  It is expected that Horner's direct replacement at Red Bull Racing, Laurent Mekies, is to assume the CEO duties of Red Bull Powertrains, but one senior figure is to receive a greater say in operations at RBPT.  Formula.Hu has reported that Ben Hodgkinson will in fact, take on a greater role in the engine department from the current position of technical director he assumed in May 2022.  Hodgkinson was poached from Mercedes High Performance Powertrains (HPP), where he served as laterly served as head of mechanical engineering between 2017 and 2022, having first joined HPP in 2001. He held various roles with the company, and at the time of the turbo hybrids being adopted in 2014, Hodgkinson was mecatronics team leader, and also served as top-end team leader and Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) leader before his final promotion in September 2017, according to his LinkedIn page. It is understood that Red Bull GmbH management is impressed with Hodgkinson and thus wants to reflect this by giving him more operational responsibilities for the engine project. Red Bull will also power sister team Racing Bulls in 2026, receiving technical assistance from Ford, which joined as a partner in March 2023.