Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes' rivals Red Bull have continued their aggressive recruitment drive by hiring five senior figures from the Briton's world championship winning team.
Following last month's announcement that long-term Mercedes man Ben Hodgkinson had quit the Silver Arrows to lead up Red Bull's new engine division, a number of additional signings were confirmed ahead of this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix.
Steve Blewett, Omid Mostaghimi, Pip Clode, Anton Mayo and Steve Brodie, who have more than 40 combined years of experience at Mercedes, will all form part of Red Bull's new technical line-up.
Red Bull Powertrains is pleased to announce the expansion of its senior leadership team 💪👇 — Red Bull Racing Honda (@redbullracing) May 6, 2021
Mercedes have dominated F1 since the introduction of the hybrid power unit in 2014, winning the past seven drivers'Â and constructors' championships.
Red Bull are set to take ownership of their engine next year following Honda's departure from Formula One at the end of the season.
Team principal Christian Horner said: "Red Bull's mission to bring all aspects of its Formula One operations in-house through Red Bull Powertrains is an enormously exciting undertaking but also an extremely demanding one, and we know that success will only be achieved by bringing in the best and brightest talent, by providing them with the right tools and by creating the right environment in which they can thrive.
Looking back at the #PortugueseGP, I have to say that finishing P2 after such a tricky few days was absolutely the maximum for us. This season is going to be long and we will be taking it one weekend at a time. And above all: we'll keep fighting until the end 💪 #KeepPushing pic.twitter.com/Xvzaf9sdNy — Max Verstappen (@Max33Verstappen) May 4, 2021
"Today's key leadership team appointments demonstrate our strong commitment to those goals and we certainly benefit from our campus being located in the UK where we have access to a huge wealth of engineering talent.
"Working with our new Technical Director, Ben Hodgkinson, and alongside key personnel retained from Honda Racing Development, each of the senior personnel announced today bring a wealth of experience, expertise and innovativity to the Red Bull Powertrains programme and provide us with the strongest possible technical platform for the future."
Hamilton, who won last weekend's Portuguese Grand Prix, holds an eight-point advantage over Red Bull's Max Verstappen ahead of the fourth round of the campaign in Barcelona.
