“Felt Like We Were Being Hunted”: Red Bull Mechanic on Lewis Hamilton’s Epic Chase in 2021

The 2021 season will be etched in F1 fans’ memories for producing one of the most enthralling championship fights between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. The duo not only produced brilliant racing action but also instigated some intense drama and controversies.

One man who witnessed it all from close quarters is Red Bull mechanic Calum Nicholas. The senior power unit assembly technician recently explained how physically and mentally challenging the entire season was, and how Hamilton and Mercedes made their life difficult by challenging them until the end.

“I’ve often described it like we felt like we were being hunted,” Nicholas said on the High Performance podcast. He explained that since both Verstappen and Red Bull had a decent advantage over Hamilton and Mercedes in their respective championship standings, they believed at one point that they were “probably going to walk” away with both titles.

However, with Hamilton bouncing back strongly toward the business end of the season, finishing first or second in each of the last six races, he ensured that neither Verstappen nor Red Bull would have it easy. Then Nicholas shared his thoughts about one of the most polarizing races in F1 history — the 2021 season finale in Abu Dhabi.

“You have to be there to win it”: Nicholas on Verstappen’s controversial win

With Hamilton coming so agonizingly close to winning a record eighth title, it comes as no surprise that he felt incredibly disheartened and perhaps also cheated, considering the way he lost the championship.

However, Verstappen and Red Bull maintain their stance that they never made any of the controversial decisions and that they had worked hard enough to put themselves in a position to win the championship in the end.

“I’m not really that interested in people’s debates about whether this should have happened or that should have happened,” Nicholas explained what he thought about the way Verstappen won the title. “You know my view is that you have to be there to win it”.

The host of the podcast then added that because of how the 2021 season ended, the work that Verstappen and Red Bull put into the campaign often got overshadowed.

Nicholas agreed and explained that while they definitely did have a bit of luck that went their way with the controversial decisions that were made by the stewards, he believes it is no different than other sports — sometimes a bit of luck goes one team’s way and sometimes the other. But the problem is that it was no ordinary mistake that the stewards made.

Why is the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP so controversial?

The 2021 season finale in Abu Dhabi was probably the perfect example of how the campaign panned out — there was some brilliant racing in the opening few laps between the two title protagonists, with both battling for the lead.

Then there was a period when it seemed that Hamilton and Mercedes would run away with both championships, with the Briton having a 12-second lead over his title rival. However, then came the drama with Nicholas Latifi crashing on lap 53.

The stewards had no choice but to bring out the safety car to neutralize the race, which not only nullified all of Hamilton’s lead but also gave Verstappen the opportunity to pit for fresher rubber.

Then the stewards made one of the most controversial decisions ever — which they later admitted was “human error” — in the sport’s history by allowing only the lapped cars between Hamilton and Verstappen to unlap themselves. This ruling played perfectly into Verstappen and Red Bull’s hands as he went on to win the race and his maiden title.

Although it has been more than three long years since that race took place, the emotions still run fresh in the minds of those who witnessed it, as Nicholas explained in his most recent interview, and that is simply because of the mental and physical toll the title battle took on both drivers and their respective teams.