Following their success in the 2025, McLaren sticks with their Team Principal, Andrea Stella. Stella was promoted to the position in December 2022 after being with the team since 2015. Stella started his career in 2000 at Ferrari later worked with multiple World Drivers Champions in Michael Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen, and Fernando Alonso. He has had multiple positions in McLaren, including Head of Race Operations, Performance Director, Executive Director, and, of course, Team Principal.

Mercedes Team Principal is Toto Wolff, who is the longest serving Team Principal on the current grid. Wolff took the position back in 2013 when he also became a Managing Partner and acquired a 30% stake. Prior to that, Wolff had a short lived racing career and in 2009 he invested in the Williams F1 team and eventually became an Executive Director. Wolff currently serves as CEO as well as Team Principal and has led the team during their time of great success from 2014-2020.

Red Bull made a major change during the 2025 season when it comes to their Team Principal, by replacing Christian Horner, who had been Team Principal since the team started in the sport, with Laurent Mekies. Mekies began in F1 in 2001, working at Arrows as an engine race engineer. He went on to work at Minardi in 2002, Toro Rosso in 2006 as Chief Engineer, before taking a role with the FIA in 2014, and later Sporting Director at Ferrari in 2018. He moved to AlphaTauri (now Racing Bulls) in 2024 as Team Principal moved to Red Bull midway through 2025.

At Ferrari, Fred Vasseur will continue in his position as Team Principal, which he took on in 2023. Before joining F1, Vasseur ran his own team in junior categories and co-founded ART Grand Prix with Nicolas Todt. He became Team Principal of Renault F1 team in 2016 and later joined Sauber (Or Alfa Romeo) in 2017 and left in 2022.  

James Vowles is the Team Principal at Williams, back in 2023. He began his career as an engineer in 2001 at BAR, now known as Mercedes, and worked his way up through the ranks. He was Chief Strategist in 2009 when Brawn GP had their championship winning season and worked at Mercedes during their championship streak. 

Racing Bulls was also affected by Christian Horner departure from Red Bull, as Mekies was previously Racing Bulls Team Principal. Alan Permane took on the role after Mekies promotion after being Racing Director for the team. Permane joined the sport at the then named Benetton team in 1989 and continued with them through their various names until 2023.

Another switch up for 2026 is at Aston Martin where Adrian Newey has taken on the position as Team Principal. Adrian Newey is regarded as one of the most successful engineers in F1 with his work at Williams, McLaren, and Red Bull. Read more about Adrian Newey and his career here. 

At Haas Team Principal, Ayao Komatsu, will be starting his third season in the position. He started in F1 in 2003 as an engineer at BAR and went on to join Renault in 2006 before leaving for Haas in 2016. He was first Trackside Engineering Director before rising up to Team Principal in 2024 following the exit of Guenther Steiner.

Alpine is a bit of an outlier as there are two people that cover the duties of Team Principal after the previous Team Principal, Oliver Oakes, left the team in 2025. Flavio Briatore, who is Executive Advisor, took over most of the duties previously done by Oakes, while Steve Neilsen was brought on as Managing director to oversee the day to day operations of the team.

Audi, despite being a new name, is keeping a lot of personnel from Sauber, the team they are taking over. Jonathan Wheatley took the position of Team Principal at Sauber in 2025 and will maintain his position through the transition. Wheatley started as a junior mechanic at Benetton in 1991, and later rose to the role of Chief Mechanic. He joined Red Bull in 2006 as Sporting Director and saw the team through many victories before his exit in 2024.

With an 11th team comes a new Team Principal. Graeme Lowdon has taken on the role of Team Principal for the new Cadillac F1 team. Lowdon is not new to bringing a new team to the sport as he previously brought Virgin Racing to the sport in 2010. He has done other things in F1, but since the entrance of the team was announced that has been his focus.