Calum Nicholas was an integral part of Red Bull’s pit crew for several years. Even when he stepped up to the role of power unit technician, he remained a proactive presence on track, helping the crew function efficiently. However, in 2025, he called it quits on his full-time role with Red Bull and instead took up an ambassadorial position to spend more time with his family.
Coincidentally or not, Red Bull no longer seems like the well-oiled machine it once was without Nicholas. Known for setting the benchmark for fast, error-free pit stops in recent years, it’s a bit of a shock to see the Milton Keynes-based outfit struggle in this area.
In Bahrain two weeks ago, this was clearly evident when Red Bull mishandled both Max Verstappen’s and Yuki Tsunoda’s pit stops due to an electrical failure on their pit gantry. Verstappen, already having a nightmare weekend with car issues, lost 6.2 seconds during his first stop.
Fans who witnessed this texted Nicholas about Red Bull‘s drop in pit-stop efficiency since he left his position, as he revealed on Instagram. The Briton, however, wasn’t very appreciative of the criticism his team was facing.
“I’ve had enough, it’s gotta stop. So, let’s talk about it,” he said in a video.
Firstly, he stated that setting the standard of making every pit stop perfect would be a bit ‘ridiculous’ for any team. While it would be their target, it’s not realistically achievable. “You’re going to do about 100 live pit stops a year. So, the idea that every single one of them is going to be perfect is a bit of a ridiculous standard to set for yourself.”
Nicholas further pointed out that even when Red Bull seemed flawless in their execution, winning Fastest Pitstop awards every season, they still had their moments of failure.
View this post on Instagram
In such cases, all they can do is “look at why and look at how you can prevent it from happening next time, and that’s exactly what the crew will do.” The Bahrain GP issue was, naturally, an equipment malfunction that hampered their stops for both cars.
Regardless, Red Bull won’t use this as an excuse to hide their pit-stop issues in 2025. After all, they’re nowhere near the top of the DHL Fastest Pit Stop Award standings after five rounds.
While Ferrari—who’ve historically had sluggish pit stops—are now leading with 182 points, having improved over the past two seasons to record the fastest stop at every Grand Prix, Red Bull sit sixth with just 35 points.
In fact, the Italian team set the fastest pit stop of the season—2.0 seconds—at the Saudi Arabian GP, while Red Bull didn’t have a single stop in the top 10 fastest. This highlights just how much work Red Bull need to do to regain their pit-stop supremacy, especially as they’re already falling behind in both championships.
