Andretti's chief engineer Hampson looking to downscale role in 2027 and beyond

IndyCar championship-winning race engineer Craig Hampson has decided to take a significant step back from a lifetime of travel and is looking to downshift into a reduced role with Andretti Global

As the team's Chief IndyCar Race Engineer, Hampson (pictured above in 2015) oversees the engineering group that runs its three Honda-powered entries. He will transition out of the role before the end of the year and decide whether he wants to remain with the team in a shop-based role, or consider other options in the sport.

In his place, Andretti’s Nathan O’Rourke is expected to step into the Chief Engineer role after spending the last season in a shop-based position of his own. Best known as Colton Herta’s race engineer at Andretti, O’Rourke has extensive engineering history in the series and is widely respected within the team and within the paddock.

Considered one of the best race engineers and technical minds of his era, Hampson earned four consecutive Champ Car championships with Sebastien Bourdais at Newman/Haas Racing and went on the have more success with Andretti during his first tour in the 2010s with James Hinchcliffe along with Bourdais at Dale Coyne Racing and Arrow McLaren before returning to Andretti in 2024.

The anticipated changes are the latest in an increasing number of major engineering changes among top IndyCar teams, and follow Chip Ganassi Racing’s losses of Chris Simmons and Ross Bunnell to Arrow McLaren and Alex Palou’s championship-winning race engineer Julian Robertson to retirement.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has also made a key change with the appointment of title-winning race engineer Gavin Ward as its new VP of Engineering, a position formerly held by Indy 500-winning race engineer Todd Malloy.