From leaving Mercedes to creating a fully independent power unit, Ben Hodgkinson tells the story of Red Bull’s most ambitious motorsport project, shaped by new regulations, sustainable fuels and a startup that has grown at remarkable speed.
Ben Hodgkinson has become the symbol of the biggest challenge Red Bull has ever taken on in motorsport. In 2022, after twenty years spent in Mercedes’ engine department, the British engineer left Brixworth and moved to Milton Keynes. Waiting for him was a blank sheet of paper and the resources needed to create a completely independent power unit, a project that only later would benefit from the partnership with Ford.
“I started about three and a half years ago,” Ben Hodgkinson explained, “and it has been a long and intense journey. In that time we built three facilities, hired around 700 people and developed an engine based on the new regulations. There have been many sleepless nights and an enormous effort from everyone.”
The first power unit bearing the Red Bull Powertrains name will inevitably be under intense scrutiny. It could hardly be otherwise, as the Milton Keynes team is about to open a new chapter in its history as a full works manufacturer. The countdown is almost over: in less than two weeks, four cars powered by the new engine will hit the track at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. That debut represents the first major milestone for the new technical department, with on-track feedback set to provide the initial indications of how the engine truly compares to its rivals.
“I’ve been designing racing engines for 27 years,” Ben Hodgkinson added, “and in the previous regulatory cycle that began in 2014, development continued right up to last season, with gains of around half a second per year. So we know the amount of work ahead is huge and that we are still far from the optimum.” Among the key challenges are sustainable fuels: “They are more complex, because they are made up of components with different evaporation points.”
As the engineer recalled, fossil fuels evaporated at lower temperatures and within a very narrow window. “With sustainable fuels, some components evaporate later than others, which makes combustion more complicated. We are working with hotter combustion chambers, a condition that opens up fascinating technical scenarios, but ones that are far from simple.”
Hodgkinson compares the current situation to that of an athlete running the 400 metres alone in an empty stadium: the lap time is there, but direct comparison with rivals is missing. Without going into the details of dyno testing, he identifies two certainties: the strength of the team and the quality of the infrastructure.
“I’ve worked in Formula 1 since the V10 era and I believe I know how to judge a good organisation. Here I had the unique opportunity to shape an ideal power unit department, and I can say the support from Red Bull’s top management has been total, especially when it comes to facilities. The team we’ve built is extraordinary: when a startup is born, there’s a special energy in the air, you feel like pioneers. The dedication I see every day is incredible. We have all the ingredients to do well, and whether it becomes a Michelin-star dish, we’ll find out soon.”
It is a challenge that goes far beyond simply designing an engine. “When this opportunity was offered to me,” Ben Hodgkinson concluded, “what fascinated me was the idea of starting from zero, not just with the power unit but with the entire company. At the beginning there were five of us in a small office, while the facilities still had to be built. Then, week after week, the group grew and roles evolved. It was an organism in constant transformation. We had the chance to build everything from scratch around the regulations, which was a truly interesting opportunity, and we hope to turn it into an advantage.”
Once full operational capacity was reached, the challenge became extracting maximum value from the knowledge of new recruits coming from very different backgrounds. “That cognitive diversity is a huge added value and it has accelerated change. It’s a bold project that has attracted bold people, perfectly aligned with the Red Bull culture.”
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