Tom McCullough to leave Aston Martin after 13 years
NXTbets Pro | Published On: August 4, 2026
Tom McCullough exit
Aston Martin performance director Tom McCullough is set to leave the team after a 13-year run that covered the Force India, Racing Point and Aston Martin eras. McCullough joined the organization in 2014, when it was Force India, and he became performance director in 2018. His exit closes a long stretch in which he helped shape the team through several name changes and a series of structural shifts inside the operation.
Aston Martin moved McCullough off the Formula 1 project in early 2025 during a leadership restructure. That change sent him away from the core race team and into a different lane inside the wider business. Since then, his work has centered on Performance Technologies and other motorsport programs. He spent the last 20 months overseeing motorsport projects in that part of the company, a role that kept him tied to the organization even as his day-to-day focus changed. The move marked a major adjustment for a senior figure who had spent most of his Aston Martin years in race-team leadership.
Aston Martin reshuffle
The leadership shake-up brought several other changes at Aston Martin. Mike Krack took over McCullough’s trackside duties as Chief Trackside Officer, giving the team a new lead in that area. Andy Cowell became Aston Martin CEO in the 2025 reshuffle, adding another new voice at the top of the organization. Adrian Newey now serves as Aston Martin’s interim team principal, which gives the team an established technical figure in the top race role for the moment.
Jonathan Wheatley is widely expected to become team principal after he leaves Audi, a move that would add another high-profile appointment to the structure. Those changes show how much Aston Martin has reworked its leadership group across the same period in which McCullough’s responsibilities changed. The team has shifted senior roles across the board, from the boardroom to the pit wall, as it tries to settle on a stable direction. McCullough’s departure fits into that broader reset, even if his own work moved away from Formula 1 before the latest changes took shape.
McCullough career
McCullough’s résumé reaches well beyond Aston Martin. He began his Formula 1 career at Williams in 2002, then later had a short stint at Sauber before landing at Force India in 2014. That track record gave him a long view of the sport and a series of roles at teams with different structures and ambitions. At Force India, he played a part in one of the team’s most productive stretches, including back-to-back fourth-place finishes in 2016 and 2017.
He also helped Racing Point secure its first Formula 1 win in 2020, another milestone that underlined his value inside the organization. Those results form the clearest marker of his time with the team across its different identities. McCullough spent years in a key technical and performance role while the operation changed around him. From Williams to Sauber to Force India, Racing Point and Aston Martin, he built a career that moved with the changing shape of the grid and left him with a long record of work inside one of Formula 1’s most transformed teams.
