When Red Bull mechanics were recently asked about their closest call on nearly missing a crucial piece of equipment or car part before an event, Calum Nicolas, one of the well-known mechanics, recalled a story from Red Bull’s early championship years. He recounted a time when they came alarmingly close to missing a vital part for Sebastian Vettel’s car.
Calum explained that the team basically had to book a chartered flight to fly in an upgraded front wing for Vettel from London to Nagoya overnight to get the part delivered before the qualifying session.
He explained that the situation was so tight they didn’t even have time to paint the front wing at the factory and had to complete the paint job mid-air.
“There is an old tale from before our time with Seb’s front wing, where they had a front wing for Seb, like an upgraded front wing that was so late, eventually they charted a jet and they flew it to the circuit and it was painted mid-air,” Calum recalled during a recent appearance on The Fast and the Curious podcast.
Calum also revealed how the entire process (possibly of painting the front wing) destroyed the jet. “[It was a long time ago] but yeah, by all accounts, they destroyed the jet,” he added.
Vettel went on to claim pole position with the new front-wing
The event in question is the 2011 Japanese Grand Prix where Vettel damaged the only available front wing during FP1 and had to compete in the other two practice sessions on an old spec wing.
After being delivered in Nagoya, the wing had to be delivered to the Suzuka International Circuit via a helicopter, and even with air support, the team only got the part with just 30 minutes to go before qualifying.
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Sebastian Vettel pole lap, Suzuka 2011pic.twitter.com/URxubDtagq— Riky Ardiansyah (@RikyyArdii) July 29, 2024
“The guys back at the base made a Herculean effort to bring forward the production of another component, get it onto a flight, and get it to the circuit only half an hour before qualifying itself. It was phenomenal,” Christian Horner was quoted by Autosport.
Luckily, Vettel used the new front wing, which was expected to give him at least a couple of tenths advantage over the old spec wing, to claim the pole position on Saturday and hung on the podium places in the race on Sunday.
