Meet the 2026 F1 race engineers

The race engineer position is one of the most important in any F1 team, with the position being responsible for being the driver's eyes and ears whilst out on track.

The engineer must provide the driver with clear information about traffic and their strategy in the race, whilst also finding set-up solutions to aid performance.

In 2026, there will be 24 race engineers among the 11 teams, although only 23 are confirmed as of the time of publication.

Read on below to find out which team is 'doubling up' its race engineers, who remains without one, and which driver is engineered by an Olympic Silver medalist!

McLaren

At McLaren, Lando Norris will be paired once again with Will Joseph the only engineer he has worked with since making his debut in 2019. 

Joseph (below) has prior experience working as Lewis Hamilton's performance engineer in 2012 before becoming Fernando Alonso's race engineer in 2018, before joining Norris in 2019. He is also the overall director of race engineering for McLaren. 

Oscar Piastri will continue working throughout 2026 with Tom Stallard. 

An Olympic rowing Silver medalist from the 2008 Beijing Games, Stallard was Jenson Button's race engineer in 2014, before working with Stoffel Vandoorne, Carlos Sainz, Daniel Ricciardo, and finally Piastri. 

Mercedes

George Russell is to continue on with Marcus Dudley at Mercedes for a fourth season, with the two first teaming up in 2023. 

Dudley had previously served as a performance engineer on Lewis Hamilton's car and stood in for regular race engineer Peter Bonnington in 2019 and 2022, guiding Hamilton to victory at the 2019 Mexican GP. 

On the other side of the garage, Kimi Antonelli will again work with Peter Bonnington (below). Known as 'Bono', the veteran has experienced working alongside both seven-time champions in Formula 1 history.

He became Michael Schumacher's race engineer in 2011, before joining forces with Hamilton in 2013, with Hamilton-Bonnington the most successful pairing in F1 history with 83 wins and six drivers' titles between 2013 and 2024.

After Hamilton's departure to Ferrari, Bonnington was paired with Hamilton's replacement Antonelli, and also promoted to head of trackside performance.

Red Bull

The old married couple of Max Verstappen and Gianpiero Lambiase (below) remains unchanged at Red Bull, with the two having worked together since Verstappen was promoted to Red Bull in 2016.

Liambiase has guided Verstappen to all of his 71 wins and four world titles, with the pair often having a direct manner over the team radio. In addition to Verstappen, Lambiase also enjoys a similar role to Will Joseph at McLaren and Peter Bonnington at Mercedes of overseeing race engineering for the entire team. 

Verstappen's new team-mate Isack Hadjar, will be partnered by Richard Wood. 

Wood initially served as a performance engineer to Sergio Perez, before stepping up for 2025 as Liam Lawson's race engineer and then guiding Yuki Tsunoda through his 22 races with the team. 

Ferrari

Of the 22 drivers on the grid, only Lewis Hamilton does not have a confirmed race engineer heading into the new season. 

Hamilton's previous engineer, Riccardo Adami, was removed from his position ahead of the 2026 season after the two failed to gel in 2025, with a full-time replacement not yet confirmed as of March 1st. During pre-season testing, Hamilton worked with Carlo Santi, Kimi Raikkonen's old engineer, with Santi expected to continue until a full-time appointment is made.

Team-mate Charles Leclerc is paired with Bryan Bozzi. 

The two started working together after Leclerc's previous engineer Xavi Marcos Padros stepped aside following the 2024 Miami GP, with Bozzi guiding Leclerc to his emotional victory at the 2024 Monaco GP.

Williams

Once again, Alex Albon is paired with James Urwin (below) at Williams.

Urwin has nearly a decade of experience as a race engineer, having initially stepped into the position in 2017 with Lance Stroll. 

Since then, Urwin worked with George Russell between 2019 and 2021, before Albon joined as Russell's replacement in 2022. 

Team-mate Carlos Sainz and Gaetan Jago will continue for a second season in 2026 in their partnership.

Jago has looked after Nicholas Latifi, Logan Sargeant, and Franco Colapinto since joining the team in 2020, and helped Sainz to record two podium finishes in 2025, Williams' first since Stroll at the 2017 Azerbaijan GP. 

Racing Bulls

Liam Lawson is to receive a new race engineer at Racing Bulls in 2026, with Alexandre Iliopoulous replacing Ernesto Diesdiero in the role for the New Zealander.

Iliopoulos has been with the team since 2016 through its various guises as Toro Rosso and AlphaTauri, and steps up from senior performance to race engineer for 2026.

F1 rookie Arvid Lindblad will be partnered with Pierre Hamelin for his first season. 

Hamelin has nearly 10 years of race engineering behind him, having worked with Danill Kvyat, Brendon Hartley, Alex Albon, Pierre Gasly, Nyck de Vries, Daniel Ricciardo, Liam Lawson and finally Isack Hadjar. 

He was at Gasly's side when the Frenchman won the 2020 Italian Grand Prix.

Aston Martin

Aston Martin is deploying a different approach across its race engineering than usual in 2026.

Both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll will have a new senior race engineer working with their normal engineers.

On Alonso's side of the garage, Chris Cronin returns to work with Andrew Vizard. 

Cronin was previously Sebastian Vettel's engineer and worked with Alonso until last year, when he took up a more senior role, with his replacement being Vizard.

For Stroll, Gary Gannon takes on the more senior engineering role, partnered with Stephen Glass.

Gannon is an F1 veteran and previously worked with Romain Grosjean, Mick Schumacher, and Nico Hulkenberg at Haas before joining Aston, whilst Glass steps up from a performance engineer position to race engineer, having joined when the team was in its Racing Point guise in 2019.

Haas

There is no change at Haas in its driver-engineer pairings, with both Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman continuing with their 2026 engineers.

For Ocon, this is Laura Mueller, who, in 2025, became the first female race engineer in F1 history.

She previously served as a performance engineer before being paired with Ocon.

Bearman and Ronan O'Hare also started working together in 2025, with the Northern Irishman joining Haas in 2022.

He served as performance engineer to Mick Schumacher and Nico Hulkenberg before stepping up to engineer Bearman during his first full season in 2025.

Audi

For the new Audi F1 team, both Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto will continue with their engineers from the final Sauber season.

Hulkenberg will be working with Steven Petrik, who assumed race engineering duties with Valtteri Bottas from the 2024 Miami GP. Petrik guided Hulkenberg to his first podium at the 2025 British GP in his 239th start.

For his second season, Bortoleto continues with Jose Manuel Lopez, who started out with Haas in 2016 with Esteban Gutierrez and Kevin Magnussen in 2017 and 2019. 

In 2020, he moved to McLaren and served on Lando Norris's team (below) before heading up the test team, where he crossed paths with Bortoleto for the first time, who was a McLaren junior at the time. 

They became a driver-engineer pairing for the 2024 F2 champion's rookie season in 2025.

Alpine

At Alpine, Pierre Gasly is paired once again with Josh Peckett, who engineered Esteban Ocon to his first F1 win at the 2021 Hungarian GP. 

Peckett (below, with Ocon) previously worked with Jack Doohan during his appearance at the 2024 Abu Dhabi GP when he replaced Ocon, but moved across the garage to work with Gasly for 2025. 

Franco Colapinto continues on with Stuart Barlow as the man in his ear as he starts his first full-time F1 season in 2026.

Barlow was previously a performance engineer to Ocon before stepping up to engineer Doohan and then Colapinto following Alpine's driver swap following the 2025 Miami GP. 

Cadillac

Much like its driver line-up, Cadillac has opted for an experienced race engineering pair for its first season. 

Valtteri Bottas is paired with Pierre Gasly's former engineer, John Howard, for his return to the grid, whilst across the garage, Sergio Perez will be working with Carlo Pasetti.

Pasetti previously worked for Aston Martin before joining F1's newest team. 

Overseeing the race engineering department will be Charles Leclerc's former engineer, Xavi Marcos Padros.