F1 News
Two decades at Mercedes: Ben Hodgkinson's seriously impressive CV
Red Bull Powertrains have signed Ben Hodgkinson as their technical director. In his role, Ben will be in charge of all technical aspects at Red Bull Powertrains with a key focus on the development of Red Bull's first power unit to meet the new Formula One regulations scheduled for 2025. Hodgkinson has a seriously impressive CV and will bring plenty of much-needed experience to build this first power unit.
Two decades at Mercedes
Hodgkinson has worked at Mercedes AMG High-Performance Powertrains for 20 years in various roles. And looking at his full CV, it is clear why Christian Horner and the rest of the Red Bull Racing team wanted to lure Hodgkinson from their closest rivals.
Hodgkinson joined Mercedes in August 2001 and worked as a design engineer, a role he held until February 2003. During this year, he worked as a Development engineer.
Team Leader
When he joins Red Bull after his current contract terms have come to a close, he will be leading the development of Red Bull's first Formula 1 power unit. Hodgkinson is clearly no stranger to a leadership role.
He earned a promotion in May 2004 and became the Development Team Leader, a role which he only held for a few months. He moved over to Design Team Leader in August of the same year. A role which he held until 2007.
Hodgkinson moved through the roles of Mechatronics Team Leader, Mechanical Development Team Leader, Single Cylinder Project Leader. This saw him through until 2014 when he became the Top End Team Leader.
In 2016, he became the ICE team leader, and then became Head of Mechanical Engineering in September 2017. He has been working on what is known as project pitlane at Mercedes.
Variety of roles
This variety of roles has allowed Hodgkinson to pick up plenty of knowledge in many different areas of the engine department and leaves no question marks around why Red Bull wanted to move him across to Milton Keynes.
During his two decades of experience at Mercedes, he has helped win eight constructors world championships. He has worked on all of Lewis Hamilton's seven world championship titles, plus successful years for Nico Rosberg and Jenson Button.