Red Bull have moved early to secure one of the paddock’s most respected operators, prising Tom McCullough away from Aston Martin to become their head of racing from the start of 2027.
The 50-year-old Briton will step into a role effectively running all trackside operations beneath team principal Laurent Mekies, a powerful position at the heart of Red Bull’s race-day decision-making. He arrives as the long-term replacement for Gianpiero Lambiase, whose own future lies at McLaren as their incoming chief racing officer by 2028.
Red Bull confirmed the appointment with a pointed nod to McCullough’s pedigree, saying they looked forward to the “wealth of experience and expertise” he will bring when he joins in 2027.
This is not a gamble. McCullough has been a fixture in the sport for decades, a quiet but influential presence behind some of the grid’s most resourceful midfield outfits.
He has spent more than 10 years with the Silverstone-based team through its various incarnations – Force India, Racing Point and now Aston Martin – helping to steer them through financial crises, ownership changes and, more recently, their push towards the front.
Before that, he served at Williams and Sauber, building a reputation as a sharp engineering mind with a strong feel for race operations and performance detail.
His trajectory at Aston Martin shifted in January 2025, when a restructure moved him away from the F1 race team and into their performance technologies division. It was a significant change for someone so closely associated with the cut and thrust of grand prix weekends, and it inevitably put his name on rival teams’ radar.
Red Bull have now made their move. The new head of racing role hands McCullough sweeping responsibility over how the team executes on Sundays – strategy calls, operational discipline, the rhythm of a race weekend. In a team accustomed to fighting at the front, that influence is enormous.
The appointment also drops directly into one of the most intriguing off-track storylines in the paddock: the future of Gianpiero Lambiase.
Lambiase, long established as Max Verstappen’s race engineer and the other half of one of F1’s most compelling radio double acts, is set to leave for McLaren as their chief racing officer by 2028. His blunt, unfiltered exchanges with Verstappen have become part of the sport’s soundtrack, a window into the control room of a dominant era.
For now, the timing of his exit remains officially vague. The key question is whether McCullough’s arrival on a 2027 start date smooths the path to a negotiated settlement that lets Lambiase leave Red Bull earlier than currently planned.
That is where the politics begin. Red Bull have secured their future leadership on the pit wall. McLaren are waiting for theirs. Somewhere in the middle sits one of the sport’s most influential voices on the radio and a new power broker preparing to shape how the world champions go racing from 2027.
