Williams has already defined an important change for Alexander Albon’s future. The Thai-British driver will start working with a new race engineer from the 2027 Formula 1 season, amidst an internal reorganization within the team.
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This change involves James Urwin, who has been with Albon since 2023. After more than a decade working in track engineering roles, he will leave his current position to take on a new role within Williams.
According to GPblog, the change was planned to provide a better work-life balance for Urwin. At the same time, the team intends to retain the experience accumulated by the Briton within its structure.
Despite the decision to promote this change, Williams has not yet defined who will take on Albon’s race engineer role. The team is conducting succession planning for several important positions related to track operations, but no choice has been announced so far.
These changes come after months of speculation involving Tom Hart, Max Verstappen’s performance engineer. Late last year, different media outlets indicated that he could leave Red Bull Racing to join Williams, remaining for one more season at Red Bull before the transfer in 2027.
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However, this possibility was never made official. Last week, new reports indicated that Red Bull would keep Hart after Gianpiero Lambiase’s announced departure, including information that Laurent Mekies had approached James Vowles to try to reverse a possible transfer, and prepare Hart to be Verstappen’s future race engineer.
But Hart’s move to Williams was never formally established and remained only in the realm of speculation. Neither Red Bull nor Williams commented on the alleged conversation between Mekies and Vowles.
What is already confirmed is the restructuring of Williams’ engineering setup. From 2027, Albon will have a new race engineer, while Urwin will remain in the organization in another role, with his replacement yet to be defined.
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