Tom Coupland is the Chief Designer of the Haas F1 Team, responsible for leading the team's car design programmes. He was promoted into the role internally as part of the technical and operational restructuring carried out under team principal Ayao Komatsu ahead of the 2025 season. ¹²

Role at Haas

Coupland sits within Haas's reshaped technical structure beneath Technical Director Andrea De Zordo. He works alongside Jonathan Heal, confirmed as Deputy Chief Designer, and Davide Paganelli, the Head of Aerodynamics — both promotions tied to the team's Ferrari secondment arrangements. Together they form the core design leadership of a team that develops its car across UK and Maranello-based facilities. ¹

“Coupland sits within Haas's reshaped technical structure beneath Technical Director Andrea De Zordo.”

The 2025 reshuffle

Komatsu overhauled Haas's senior personnel for 2025, having identified the design and engineering organisation as a weak point once the car became more competitive and exposed gaps in execution. Alongside the design promotions, the restructuring brought in Mark Lowe as sporting director, Carine Cridelich as head of strategy (from RB) and Francesco Nenci as chief race engineer (from Audi's Dakar programme). Komatsu described the overhaul as "a huge change," and Coupland's elevation to Chief Designer was a settled, internal part of it — his position left unchanged when the rest of the structure was rebuilt. ¹²

A low public profile

As is common for senior F1 engineering staff who are not public-facing, little is publicly documented about Coupland's nationality, date of birth or earlier career. What is firmly on the record is his current standing as the team's lead designer within a Maranello-linked technical group during Haas's recent step forward. ¹²

Bottom line

Coupland is the Haas F1 Team's Chief Designer, an internally promoted figure trusted to lead car design as part of Komatsu's revamped technical structure — a key but deliberately low-profile role in the team's resurgence. ¹