Aston Martin's Tom McCullough to Exit After 2026 Season
Long-time engineer Tom McCullough will leave Aston Martin after the 2026 season concludes. His decade-plus tenure saw the team through various transformations and successes.
Tom McCullough, a familiar face in the Aston Martin garage, will be parting ways with the team at the close of the 2026 Formula 1 season. Having been with the Silverstone-based team through its evolutions from Force India to Racing Point and now Aston Martin, McCullough's departure marks the end of a significant chapter.
Over his lengthy career with the team, McCullough took on numerous roles, including a focus on trackside performance. However, in 2025, he transitioned from the F1 project to a leadership role that involved expanding the team's presence in other racing categories. Mike Krack stepped in to fill his trackside duties, assuming the position of Chief Trackside Officer.
McCullough's career in F1 began back in 2002 with Williams, where he started as a data engineer. He quickly moved up the ranks to become a race engineer, working with drivers such as Nico Hulkenberg, Rubens Barrichello, and Bruno Senna. After a decade with Williams, he had a brief stint at Sauber in 2013 before returning to the UK to lead the trackside engineering team at Force India.
Under McCullough's guidance, Force India achieved back-to-back fourth-place finishes in 2016 and 2017. The team also celebrated a notable victory in 2020 when Racing Point, as they were then known, clinched their first win and secured another fourth place in the championship.
Currently, Aston Martin is led by Adrian Newey, who holds the dual role of Team Principal and Managing Technical Partner. Despite a challenging season where the team has often found itself languishing at the lower end of the grid, recent developments have brought some hope. A B-spec car introduced in Hungary showed promise, and further chassis improvements are expected at Monza and Baku. Meanwhile, their engine partner Honda is set to deliver an upgraded power unit at the next race in Zandvoort.
As McCullough prepares to leave Aston Martin, the team is focused on climbing up from their current position of 10th in the Teams' Championship. While his next career move remains under wraps, McCullough's departure will undoubtedly be felt by a team that has seen many of its successes under his technical stewardship.