Calum Nicholas, who has been part of the record-breaking pit stop team with Red Bull, has developed good relations with several people at rival teams across the F1 paddock. However, his bond with his fellow mechanics and technicians at Red Bull is too strong for him to leave the team and seek a challenge elsewhere.
“I’ve said before, I’d find it very hard to even consider doing the job I am doing now at another place,” Nicholas said on the High-Performance podcast.
“We’ve just become so close in the garage, sort of a unit; whilst I have good relationships up and down the paddock, I don’t think I’d wanna try and achieve the same things outside of this group of people.”
Before Red Bull, Nicholas worked for the Marussia F1 team as a mechanic for three seasons. When he moved to the Austrian outfit in 2015, he was a pit stop mechanic, and steadily climbed up the ranks to get into the power unit side of things. With the kind of experience he has, any team in the paddock would easily hire Nicholas. So, why doesn’t he want to explore that opportunity?
Nicholas feels a deep sense of loyalty with his colleagues at Red Bull. “These people have been on my side for the last 10 years. I’m not really interested in jumping ship,” he added.
Currently, Nicholas is responsible for building and handling the service of all engines used in a season for racing and testing, and even for the dyno testing. With Red Bull establishing its indigenous powertrains department — RBPT — in collaboration with Ford, Nicholas may want to stay put at Milton Keynes to explore the long-term growth opportunities at a team where he has made a home for himself.
Today, we take you inside Red Bull Racing as we welcome Calum Nicholas to High Performance.
– what Max is REALLY like.
– Lewis’ legacy.
– the truth about pit stops.
– the fall out from 2021.It’s all here… https://t.co/rhlsuvFv3v pic.twitter.com/DRFVdSzglC
— Jake Humphrey (@mrjakehumphrey) February 13, 2025
And he admires the Red Bull F1 operation immensely, considering how they have made a name amid the legacy teams such as McLaren, Ferrari, and Mercedes. Nicholas even deemed the Austrian outfit the ‘pitlane pirates’, who have been the rogue force on the current F1 grid.
What could push Nicholas away from F1?
While he is keen to stay put at Red Bull, Nicholas is not happy about F1’s ever-expanding calendar. A record 24-race schedule is incredibly taxing for mechanics and technicians like Nicholas, who have to handle the logistical aspects of the team at every race weekend.
From mid-February to mid-December, the entire support crew is away from home, traversing across the globe to smoothly run the operations on track for a team’s success. Despite the summer break of four weeks in August and a few extended breaks between select race weekends, an F1 team crew is on the road for a huge part of the year.
“Look at it this season, you know, by the time you’ve done pre-season testing, the old tire tests in the middle, and the Abu Dhabi test at the end of the season, you’re away for the best part — 200 days a year,” Nicholas said on the Road to Success podcast lately. He even missed out on his daughter’s birthday during last year’s Sao Paulo GP.
Many mechanics and engineers miss out on such important family occasions and do not get enough time to spend with their loved ones. While he won’t leave Red Bull for another team, Nicholas would certainly call it quits from F1 altogether due to this lack of work-life balance.
