Key Highlights:
- Former Red Bull team principal Christian Horner instituted a strict meeting ban on using the name of rivals Mercedes during the creation of Red Bull Powertrains, forcing staff to refer to them as “Team B.”
- Following Honda’s initial decision to withdraw from Formula 1, Red Bull transformed an old bubblewrap factory in Milton Keynes within 55 weeks to build an independent engine facility.
- Horner led an aggressive poaching campaign targeting Mercedes High Performance Powertrains (HPP), securing key engineering figures including Ben Hodgkinson, Pip Clode, and Phil Prew.
Inside Red Bull’s Ambitious Powertrains Startup
Following a turbulent chapter with Renault engines, Red Bull enjoyed a resurgence after partnering with Honda, ultimately toppling Mercedes’ protracted hybrid-era dominance when Max Verstappen captured his maiden Formula 1 World Drivers’ Championship in 2021. However, Honda had shocked the sport a year prior by announcing it would exit F1 as an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) at the end of that campaign—a position the Japanese company later altered when it agreed to supply Aston Martin starting in 2026. Faced with the sudden prospect of losing its works power unit partner, Red Bull leadership resolved to construct its own dedicated engine facility from the ground up.
Red Bull brokered an interim arrangement with Honda to maintain operational continuity under the RBPT moniker from 2022 through 2025, alongside entering a technical alliance with Ford to engineer power units for F1’s impending 2026 regulation overhaul. Reflecting on the monumental venture in an interview with Autosport, former Red Bull CEO and team principal Christian Horner detailed the startup nature of the initiative:
“We did a deal with Honda, because they were pulling out, that any of their staff in the UK, which were all operational staff and a few battery-related people, came across into the business.
“But we needed to start from scratch. It was a startup.”
Targeting Mercedes Talent in Milton Keynes
To populate the new division with elite engineering talent, Horner set his sights squarely on rival establishments across the United Kingdom, focusing heavily on Mercedes High Performance Powertrains (HPP) in Brixworth. Horner explained the strategic sales pitch and location planning behind the enterprise:
“I was interviewing a lot of people from Mercedes, trying to convince them to come across to this crazy new project but using what we had done on the chassis as a prerequisite to say ‘look, we’ve done it on a chassis, we can do it on an engine with the right people’.
“And of course, you’ve got several businesses in the UK – the most prevalent being [Mercedes] HPP, and you’ve got Cosworth and you’ve got Ilmor – but there were no new engine businesses within the UK for the last 25 years.
Advertisement“So what you had at HPP was a sort of stagnant organisation that people were almost waiting for dead men’s shoes to be able to progress.
“So by saying we’re going to put this in the UK – which was a fundamental decision because there was a discussion of ‘do we partner with AVL and do it in Austria’, base it at the circuit in the Red Bull Ring or whatever – but having convinced the shareholders that we need to be in the UK, identifying we had the space within the campus in a building that used to be a bubblewrap factory that we were able to do a ‘minor update’ to, as far as the planners were aware, which involved taking everything down apart from one steel, and build a new factory within 55 weeks and start recruiting the right people.”
The Poaching War and the ‘Team B’ Mandate
The recruitment blitz coincided with an intense, bitter track rivalry between Horner and Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, as Lewis Hamilton and Verstappen fought relentlessly for the 2021 title. Red Bull successfully pulled multiple high-ranking leaders out of Brixworth, including technical director Ben Hodgkinson, head of mechanical design for energy recovery Pip Clode, engineering director Phil Prew, and leader of combustion engine operations Steve Brodie.
Horner recalled the sheer momentum and friction of the recruitment process:
“That [the recruitment] was a process where we were getting into a tug of love over talent, and I was aggressively recruiting – Ben Hodgkinson [RBPT technical director, formerly Mercedes HPP senior power unit engineer] was a key recruitment in the early days, Pip Clode [RBPT head of mechanical design for energy recovery, formerly Mercedes HPP F1 power unit concept team leader] on the turbo coming across, Phil Prew [RBPT engineering director, formerly Mercedes HPP chief engineer] coming across. There were so many talented people we managed to attract out of HPP.
“And then, of course, giving people the opportunity from within the business that perhaps wanted to make that step into other parts of the organisation, so it gave an opportunity for talent to try something different.
“You had departments that were going to be affected by both, so for example, electronics had to grow overnight to accommodate both chassis and engine and hadn’t produced engine wiring looms before. So it was a really dynamic period.
“We employed some really great characters, like Steve Brodie [RBPT leader of combustion engine operations] from Mercedes [where he was HPP F1 trackside and final inspection manager], and they just came with such energy and passion for the project, it was a really exciting time. There were a lot of questions, even internally, because Honda had produced an engine that was giving us the ability to fight for world championships toe-to-toe with Mercedes.”
However, importing an extensive contingent of engineers directly from Brixworth generated an internal cultural challenge that Horner swiftly curbed. As new hires constantly referenced practices from their previous employer, Horner stepped in to ban any mention of the Silver Arrows by name:
“There was a tremendous atmosphere within the organisation of getting this entity going and, of course, you’re welcoming people from the opposition, the enemy.
“So there was too much talk of ‘well, at Mercedes we did this and at Mercedes we did that,’ so in the end it got banned from meetings – we aren’t going to mention Mercedes; it became ‘Team B’.”
Why This Matters
Red Bull’s transition from an engine customer to an independent OEM represents one of the largest financial and logistical investments made by a single team in modern Formula 1 history. Historically, privateer squads relying on works manufacturer deals risked sudden competitive displacement whenever a supplier altered its corporate priorities—precisely what Red Bull confronted when Honda announced its intended exit in 2020.
By constructing Red Bull Powertrains in Milton Keynes and partnering with Ford, the squad ensured chassis and engine integration under a single campus, directly replicating the structural advantages enjoyed by Ferrari and Mercedes. Horner’s aggressive recruitment and cultural reset laid the foundation for the operation as it prepares to go head-to-head against established automotive power suppliers—including Mercedes, Ferrari, Audi, and Honda—under the clean-sheet 2026 engine regulations.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did Christian Horner ban staff from saying “Mercedes”?
Following the recruitment of dozens of engineers from Mercedes High Performance Powertrains, meetings were increasingly dominated by staff referencing how things were run at their former employer. To build an independent culture, Horner banned the name from official meetings, directing staff to refer to their rival as “Team B.”
Who were the key figures Red Bull hired from Mercedes?
Key hires brought into Red Bull Powertrains from Mercedes HPP included technical director Ben Hodgkinson, head of mechanical design for energy recovery Pip Clode, engineering director Phil Prew, and leader of combustion engine operations Steve Brodie.
Where was the Red Bull Powertrains facility constructed?
The factory was built directly on the Red Bull campus in Milton Keynes, United Kingdom, after converting a former bubblewrap production facility within a 55-week timeframe rather than outsourcing the project to external facilities abroad.
