Remi Taffin, Renault’s engine technical director, left the French automotive brand’s F1 operation in early July by “mutual agreement”, the Enstone-based team confirmed this week.
Taffin began working with Renault in Formula 1 in 1999, and he had remained at the team under its various different names until last month.
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Despite news of his departure only recently breaking, Taffin is already being strongly linked to Red Bull, with some sources suggesting that he is poised to join the team’s new powertrains division.
This division was formed by Red Bull following Honda’s shock decision to quit Formula 1 at the end of 2021.
Earlier this year, following all engine manufacturers agreeing to a freeze on power unit development from 2022 to 2025, Honda and Red Bull inked a deal for the latter to take over the intellectual property of the Japanese car-maker’s power unit and effectively run a rebranded Honda engine.
Red Bull have already poached Ben Hodgkinson from Mercedes to become the technical director of their newly formed powertrains division.
Earlier in the season, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said they have been approached by several engineers who are interested in being a part of their powertrains project.
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“I think for us bringing the engines on site within the campus, fully integrating it with the chassis is tremendously appealing,” Horner said.
“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 and it’s important to get the right people in the right positions.
“Obviously, we’ve had quite a bit 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.”
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