Red Bu⭕ll’s recruitment drive for its new Red Bull Powertrains arm that will take over Honda’s F1 power unit at the end of the year and build🌸 the team’s first in-house engine for 2025 is in full flow.

The Milton Keynes squad has already announced a total o♒f six signings - all of whom have had previous experience at Mercedes - including Ben Hodgkinson, who has been poached from HPP to lead Red Bull’s divis🐭ion.

Following the news of the 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史ಌ:latest five appointments on Thursday ahead of thﷺis weekend’s Span🐼ish Grand Prix, Mercedes CEO Wolff said he was not surprised by Red Bull’s strategy.

“It’s pretty obvious that if you want to set up an engine factory in the UK, there is only one, and that is us,” Wolff tol🗹d Sky Sports F1.

“We have 900 or so employees there, and if we are fishing out 15 of these or so, that’s pre൲tty normal.

“But they went mainly after manufact😼uring staff, so it’s not really performance. I guess they want to build up the c𒅌ompany.

“But credit to the project,💫 it’s a Mount Everest to climb. I’d like to have a fight with Red Bull power units.”

Wolff went on to add that Red Bull had “approached 100 pe♒op🍌le or so, and they got 15 maybe.”

In response to Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko’s claim that Mercedes had offered to double the salaries o𝓡f its staff in a bid to keep them, Wolff suggested that Red Bull went even further.

“Doubling the salaries is one thing, but if you triple them, at a certain stage,🐟ܫ you’re not going to compete any more, even for loyal people,” he said.

“But it is what it is. I𒁏 respect everybody that wants to defend his business or build his business, and the r⛎etaliation time has not yet come.”

Also speaking to Sky earlier on Friday, Red Bull F1 boss Christian Hor♐ner said it was an “inevitability” that the team would be looking to sign staff from Mercedes.

"I think there is an inevitability that obviously we're based in the UK, we're only 3📖0 miles up the road from Brixworth where Mercedes have chosen to build their engines in the UK," he explained.

"And they've done that for a reason because the talent is within the UK. I think for us bringing the engines on site within the campus, fꦇully integrating it with the chassis is tremendously appealing.

"We've been very🔯 flattered by the amount of approaches that we've had. Of course, we're starting with a clean sheet of paper ౠand it's important to get the right people in the right positions.

"Obviously, we've had quite a ꦕbit of success in attracting some fantastic talent on top of the talent that we will inherit from Honda when they depart at the end of the year."