Aston Martin key figure to leave team after 13-year spell

Aston Martin’s recent performance director, Tom McCullough, is set to leave his role with the organisation at the end of 2026, PlanetF1.com has learned.

McCullough is a stalwart of the Aston Martin organisation, having first joined the Silverstone-based squad in its Force India iteration at the start of 2014.

Tom McCullough to leave Aston Martin at end of 2026

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Veteran engineer Tom McCullough is to leave Aston Martin at the conclusion of 2026, ending a 13-year spell with the team after first joining the squad in 2014 as a chief race engineer with Force India.

McCullough had become part of Aston Martin’s senior leadership team in 2018, being appointed as performance director and serving in this role until the end of ’24.

He was one of the names moved around in Andy Cowell’s restructuring of management at the start of 2025, with Cowell, who had recently taken over as CEO, taking on the role of team principal in Mike Krack’s place.

Krack was moved to become chief trackside officer, in what was an attempt by Cowell to create a clearer delineation of responsibilities, which Aston Martin explained as a “flatter structure” in its announcement of the changes.

This move for Krack saw him assume many of the responsibilities that McCullough had overseen, meaning the British engineer moved away from the F1 side of Aston Martin’s operations in order to take up a role in expanding Aston Martin’s Performance Technologies ventures in other racing categories.

He has spent the last 20 months overseeing various motorsport projects in this arm of the business, still serving as a performance director, but will fully depart the organisation later this year.

On the F1 side, Aston Martin has gone through more managerial change, with Adrian Newey taking over the role of team boss from Cowell at the end of ’25. Newey, as managing technical partner and a minority shareholder in the team, opted to assume the position in an interim capacity while seeking a longer-term appointment to the team principal role.

PlanetF1.com’s understanding of the situation is that former Audi team boss and Newey’s long-time Red Bull colleague, Jonathan Wheatley, is to assume this role, but it is not expected to be confirmed this year while Wheatley negotiates exit terms from Audi.

McCullough’s previous F1 teams include a year at Sauber as head of trackside engineering, while he spent a decade at Williams between 2002 and 2012 as a performance and race engineer.

With extensive experience leading technical organisations and engineering teams, his 24 years of trackside performance leadership means McCullough will be an attractive prospect for any F1 team, should he wish to remain on the grid.

PlanetF1.com has approached Aston Martin for comment.

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