The Briton who was often seen next to Toto Wolff on the pit wall is now making his promotion official. Bradley Lord has been named deputy team principal at Mercedes. He's not a new name for those who follow F1, but for the general public, it's worth explaining who he is and how he got there.
To understand Bradley Lord, you've got to go back 25 years to when he started as an intern in Benetton's press office in 2001. Picture it: starting from the bottom at a top-tier team without knowing where things were headed, his first big leap came in 2006 when he became senior press officer for the championship winning Renault team, the same team that years later would transform into Alpine.
Lord has one quality that sets him apart, he crossed the line between communications and journalism several times, in 2008, he worked as a features editor for F1 Racing magazine, then returned to the corporate side as head of communications for Renault in 2010. That back and-forth gave him a unique perspective, he understood how journalists think but also how brands and teams operate.
The following year, he joined Daimler AG, Mercedes' parent company, where he oversaw operations for all the brand's motorsport programs from Stuttgart. So it wasn't just Formula 1 anymore, but everything on four wheels.
His connection to the Silver Arrows deepened in 2013 when he focused exclusively on F1 as head of communications, and a year later he was promoted to head of F1 communications. In 2017, he became director of communications for Mercedes Benz Motorsport, right in the middle of the team's golden era with seven drivers' titles and eight constructors' championships.
In 2021, he added another role by becoming director of strategic communications and later chief communications officer, roles he combined with that of team representative in 2024, that position put him in front of the cameras on many occasions, especially when Wolff needed to delegate public appearances or when his emotions ran high, like during the 2021 title fight between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, that season was so intense that Lord ended up being one of the visible faces in the garage.
Now Lord becomes Wolff's right hand man, taking a spot vacant since Jerome d'Ambrosio left in 2024. The Belgian, who managed driver development, now works at Ferrari. The Briton is no newcomer, mercedes highlighted that he was fundamental in shaping the team's culture, its communication and its strategic cohesion. It sounds like corporate talk, but in his case, there's truth to it because he was there when the team built the structure that made them dominant.
His career is an example of how to build a path from the lowest rungs. He started as an intern and now he's the second in command at one of the most powerful teams on the grid. Lord knows every corner of the organization and understands what works because he lived it.
His face will be more common on the pit wall, and his voice will continue to be the one many recognize on the broadcasts, but now with a title that reflects the weight he already carried within Mercedes' structure, it's a promotion that's really more of a recognition of years of work than a change in direction.