Fernando Alonso doubles up race engineers for 2026 - Lewis Hamilton still without one

What's the bet Fernando Alonso has a fridge magnet that reads 'two heads are better than one'? Well, if his new F1 race engineer reshuffle is anything to go by, he might just be an advocate for this mantra.

Most drivers on the F1 grid content themselves with one race engineer in their ear during a grand prix, but a second name will feature alongside Andrew Vizard on Alonso's side of the garage in 2026.

Chris Conin, who worked with Alonso in 2023 and 2024, will step up to the role of senior race engineer as part of the restructuring carried out by Aston Martin to create a new organisational chart for the team.

So then, what are Conin and Vizard going to do? Impishly issue commands to Alonso like Ant & Dec during their Get Out of Me Ear segment? Well, no.

Aston Martin are replicating Red Bull's successful set-up with Gianpiero Lambiase, who leads the trackside operations for the entire team, while also managing Max Verstappen's car.

So, Cronin will serve as Aston Martin's chief track engineer, while also being in charge of Alonso's car and Vizard reports to him.

The restructure will be replicated on Stroll's side of the garage where Gary Gannon will serve as senior race engineer and Stephen Glass will be next in the chain of command.

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Hamilton still without F1 race engineer

While Aston Martin's driver lineup enjoy two race engineers per car, Hamilton doesn't even have one full-time race engineer (yes, really).

Riccardo Adami stepped down in January and since then, Hamilton has been left without a permanent right-hand man at the pre-season tests in Barcelona and Bahrain.

For testing, Hamilton has been accompanied by Charles Leclerc's race engineer Bryan Bozzi, and it is understood that Kimi Raikkonen's former race engineer Carlo Santi has been appointed on an interim basis for the first few grands prix.

McLaren's former lead trackside performance engineer Cedric Michel-Grosjean is reportedly Ferrari bound, although there has been no confirmation from the team that he will join Hamilton's camp in 2026.

Michel-Grosjean's LinkedIn confirms he left McLaren in December and since January has been on a career break with his page saying 'Relocation'.

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