F1 Race Engineers: Who's the Voice on Team Radio? (2026)

F1 Race Engineers by the Numbers

• 22 drivers, 11 teams: every current F1 driver has one dedicated race engineer for the 2026 season.
• 10 years: how long Gianpiero "GP" Lambiase has been Max Verstappen's race engineer, since Verstappen's 2016 Spanish GP debut -- the longest active pairing on the grid.
• 3 engineers in 3 seasons: Lewis Hamilton's race-engineer turnover since 2024 -- Peter "Bono" Bonnington at Mercedes, then Riccardo Adami at Ferrari in 2025, then a new appointment for 2026.
• 2027: the season Red Bull's Tom Hart is set to fully replace Lambiase as Verstappen's race engineer, per Formula1.com's own reporting.
• 2008: the year Oscar Piastri's race engineer, Tom Stallard, won an Olympic rowing silver medal -- before moving into motorsport engineering.
• 1 voice: the number of people who nearly always deliver strategy calls over team radio -- the race engineer, not the strategist or team principal working behind them.

What a Race Engineer Actually Does

A race engineer is the driver's principal technical partner, not just a radio operator -- the person responsible for interpreting live telemetry, relaying strategy, and fine-tuning the car's setup in real time, per Autosport's own explanation of the role. During practice, qualifying and the race itself, the engineer translates data streaming in from the car into actionable calls: tyre degradation updates, fuel-saving targets, gap-to-rivals information, and split-second tactical decisions like when to pit. Off the radio, they're also the one who sits with the driver in debriefs, translating vague feedback like "the rear feels loose" into setup changes the rest of the engineering team can actually implement. Red Bull Racing's own guide to the role describes the race engineer as the single point of contact a driver trusts most on the pit wall -- which is exactly why, as the sections below cover, losing that trust can undo years of results.

The Radio Callsigns Fans Know: "GP" and "Bono"

Two race-engineer radio voices became famous almost independent of the drivers they worked with. Gianpiero Lambiase, universally known by his initials "GP," has been Max Verstappen's race engineer since Verstappen's Red Bull debut at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix -- ten years and four world championships together. Peter "Bono" Bonnington built a similar reputation alongside Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes, close enough that Hamilton has called him "like a brother to me." The team's own "Hammer Time" call sign, which Hamilton asked Bonnington to use as race-winning code in their first year together, became one of the most quoted team-radio moments in the sport -- right up to Bonnington's poignant final "Hammer Time" call to Hamilton at the end of the 2024 season, before Hamilton's move to Ferrari. Our 2024 Japanese Grand Prix radio-moments breakdown and 2024 Chinese Grand Prix radio analysis both capture engineers making exactly these kinds of race-defining calls in real time.

Even the Best Pairings Don't Always Last

The popular image of a race engineer is Lambiase and Bonnington: a decade of trust with one driver. The reality for most of the grid looks nothing like that. Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari radio partnership with Riccardo Adami never fully clicked through their first season together in 2025, and Ferrari confirmed for 2026 that Adami has moved into a Ferrari Driver Academy management role rather than continuing on Hamilton's radio -- Hamilton's third race engineer in as many seasons, after Bonnington's exit at the end of 2024. Even the grid's longest-running pairing isn't permanent: Formula1.com's own reporting confirms Lambiase himself is leaving Red Bull for a chief racing officer role at McLaren, with Red Bull's Tom Hart lined up to fully take over Verstappen's radio seat from 2027. If a ten-year, four-title partnership has an expiry date, a single rocky season is more than enough to end a newer one.

Who's Paired With Who in 2026

Race engineers are usually named alongside a driver's F1 debut and stay for years if the partnership works -- here's how the 2026 grid's best-known pairings line up, per Motorsport.com and RacingNews365's own 2026 race-engineer round-ups.

Notice how McLaren's own two engineers, Will Joseph and Tom Stallard, have been with Norris and Piastri since each driver's respective debut -- exactly the stability Ferrari has been missing with Hamilton. Our F1 team principal explainer covers the layer of management above the race engineer that ultimately signs off on driver-side personnel changes like these.

How to Become an F1 Race Engineer

Nearly every current race engineer on the grid holds a university engineering degree -- typically mechanical, automotive, or aerospace engineering -- and spent years in junior race-team or simulation-engineering roles before reaching a Formula 1 pit wall, according to motorsport recruiter Morson's own careers guide to the path. That's the standard route, but it isn't the only one: Oscar Piastri's engineer Tom Stallard won an Olympic silver medal in rowing at the 2008 Beijing Games before moving into motorsport engineering, then joined McLaren well before becoming Piastri's dedicated engineer at his 2023 debut. Teams generally look for engineers who can process data and communicate a clear decision under real-time pressure -- the same skill on display whenever a driver requests a strategy call over the radio mid-race, exactly the moments our undercut vs overcut strategy guide breaks down lap by lap.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does an F1 race engineer actually do?

A race engineer is the driver's principal technical partner and the primary voice on team radio -- relaying strategy calls, tyre and fuel data, and setup feedback in real time from the pit wall, per Autosport's own breakdown of the role. They translate live telemetry into instructions the driver can act on mid-corner, and translate the driver's own feedback back into car-setup changes the wider engineering team can implement.

Who is Max Verstappen's race engineer?

Gianpiero Lambiase, known on the radio by his initials "GP," has been Max Verstappen's race engineer since Verstappen's Red Bull debut at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix -- the longest continuous driver-engineer pairing on the current grid. Formula1.com confirms Lambiase is moving to McLaren as chief racing officer, with Red Bull's Tom Hart set to fully take over the Verstappen radio seat from 2027.

Why did Lewis Hamilton change race engineers?

Hamilton's Ferrari radio partnership with Riccardo Adami never fully clicked in their first season together in 2025, and Ferrari confirmed Adami moved to a Ferrari Driver Academy management role for 2026, per Formula1.com's own announcement. That makes three different race engineers for Hamilton in three seasons -- Peter "Bono" Bonnington through his final Mercedes year in 2024, Adami in 2025, and a new appointment for 2026.

How do you become an F1 race engineer?

Nearly every current F1 race engineer holds a university engineering degree -- typically mechanical, automotive, or aerospace engineering -- and built up years of experience in junior race-team or simulation-engineering roles before reaching a Formula 1 pit wall, per motorsport recruiter Morson's own careers guide. Oscar Piastri's engineer Tom Stallard took an unusual path: an Olympic silver medal in rowing at the 2008 Beijing Games before moving into motorsport engineering.

The Bottom Line

The engineer fans hear on team radio is almost never the person making the final strategic decision alone -- but they're the one voice a driver trusts enough to act on it instantly -- even on the two words, "box, box", that can end a stint with zero room for hesitation -- which is exactly why a pairing like Verstappen and "GP" can outlast four championship cycles while a mismatched one like Hamilton and Adami doesn't survive a single season. Even the grid's most famous partnership has an expiry date now that Lambiase is McLaren-bound, a reminder that no radio relationship in this sport is permanent. For the layer of management that signs off on these personnel calls, see our team principal guide, and to hear engineers making exactly these split-second strategy calls in real conditions, browse the team radio archive. That same trust has to be rebuilt instantly whenever a team calls up its reserve driver mid-weekend — the engineer on the radio is often meeting their driver's voice for the very first time. That radio call is only one seat among several on the platform above the pit lane — our pit wall explainer covers who else is sitting alongside the race engineer and what's actually on their screens.