Former Red Bull mechanic defends McLaren pit crew, outlines F1 pay and working conditions

A former Red Bull senior engineer has publicly defended McLaren mechanics who faced online criticism after a lengthy pit stop cost Lando Norris time at last weekend’s Italian Grand Prix, and used the exchange to outline the realities of pay and working conditions for Formula One technicians.

Calum Nicholas, who worked with four-time world champion Max Verstappen during his time at Red Bull, responded to a social media attack on the McLaren pit crew following a front-left wheel-nut issue that prolonged Norris’s stop at Monza and precipitated controversial team orders that saw team-mate Oscar Piastri hand the place back to Norris.

Nicholas said posts that blamed mechanics for the incident were "embarrassing," writing on social media: "This is why so few people in the paddock interact on here by the way. Bs (bulls***) opinions like this. It's embarrassing." He went on to give figures and describe conditions he said are common in the paddock, saying an "average salary for an F1 Tech is closer to £60k" and that "the average working week is about 70 hours."

Nicholas also said most staff travel economy class and that pit-crew members receive no additional pay for being on the pit lane. He noted regulatory and logistical constraints that affect team staffing, saying there are typically 60 operations personnel allowed at the track during a race weekend, which limits the scope to employ specialists solely for pitstops.

The former chief engineer, who published a memoir earlier this year that includes a chapter titled "The cost of the cost cap," linked salary trends to the sport’s budget restrictions, introduced in 2021. He told followers that the cost cap has had a knock-on effect on pay, adding, "But let’s be clear, even without it, pit crew would not earn £350k a year." He joked that such pay might prompt a comeback.

Nicholas described his own early-career earnings as "insanely underpaid," saying his first salary in the role was about £42,000. He said those figures reflect the high skill level required in race operations combined with limited staffing and long hours.

The social-media exchange followed a chaotic finish at Monza in which McLaren drivers took second and third places. Norris had been leading ahead of Piastri before the delayed pit stop; after the stop, McLaren issued team orders that saw Piastri return the position to Norris.

McLaren secured a strong result in Italy but faced scrutiny from some fans and commentators over the handling of the pit stop and the intra-team decision to swap places. Nicholas’s intervention sought to contextualize the scrutiny by highlighting operational pressures, travel arrangements and pay scales for mechanics and engineers compared with the large salaries drawn by drivers.

Driver contracts remain far more lucrative than back-of-house roles. The notes from Nicholas’s comments and wider reporting referenced high-profile driver deals, including Verstappen’s multi-year contract reported in 2022 at roughly £40 million per season and Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari earlier in the season on a deal widely reported at about £60 million per year.

In the championship standings after Monza, Piastri led on 324 points with Norris second on 293, and both remained in contention for the title. Nicholas’s remarks add to a recurring debate about resource allocation and compensation within Formula One, while illustrating the pressures faced by the technicians who service cars under tight time constraints and regulatory limits during race weekends.