The truth behind a pit crew member’s pay, travel and working week

Former Red Bull mechanic Calum Nicholas has hit back at a social media user for downplaying the work that mechanics do in Formula 1, and for little pay and long hours.

F1 mechanics were in the spotlight at the Italian Grand Prix when a slow pit stop cost Lando Norris second place, and put into play controversial team orders with McLaren telling Oscar Piastri to give the position back to Norris.

Former Red Bull mechanic calls out ‘Bs opinions like this’

Racing for second place at Monza, Norris pitted the lap after his teammate despite being the lead driver and was assured there would “be no undercut”.

But a 5.9s stop, the result of a wheel nut issue on his front left, meant he was stationary four seconds longer than Piastri and lost second place to the Australian.

McLaren ordered Piastri to give the position back to Norris, with the team’s action courting controversy despite McLaren’s assertion that it was in the name of “principles” and “racing values”.

One social media user criticised F1 mechanics for their “three second work shift” in a now-deleted post.

Nicolas, who was a prominent member of the Red Bull crew and played a crucial role in all four of Max Verstappen’s World titles, before retiring at the end of last season, hit back.

“This is why so few people in the paddock interact on here by the way. Bs opinions like this. It’s embarrassing,” Nicholas said on social media.

“Average salary for an F1 Tech is closer to £60k by the way.

“The average working week is about 70 hours.

“Most fly economy, and nobody gets paid more for being on the pit crew.”

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He went on to reply to several followers with one fan commenting: “‘3 second work shift’ like some of them don’t build and repair the car every weekend.”

Nicholas replied: “All of them. Nobody is there just to do pitstops. Only 60 operational personnel allowed at the track, there’s no room for it.”

Asked about being “insanely underpaid for the work” the mechanics do, he said: “My first salary travelling the world in F1 at 22 was £42k. With no responsibilities at home, it felt like I’d hit the lottery.”

That, though, was before the calendar was extended to 24 races and the V8 engines made way for the more complex 1.6-litre turbocharged V6 hybrid power units.

“But it was also only a 17 race season, with no triple-headers,” he added. “The workload on the V8s was also nothing compared to what’s required now.”

Quizzed on the salary of the pit crews and whether F1’s cost cap had “screwed over F1 personnel”, Nicholas said he believed it had, but that they still wouldn’t be earning huge salaries even without it.

“I mean, my general answer to this is “yes”. In fact, “The cost of the cost cap” is a chapter of my book that I thought was one of the most important.

“But let’s be clear, even without it, pit crew would not earn £350k a year.

“If they ever do, I might consider a comeback,” he said followed by three laughing crying emojis.

The individual behind the original comment subsequently apologised, writing: “Last night I downplayed a mechanic’s role in Formula One, I understand I was saying things without knowing what mechanics do. Moving forward I’ll be learning.

“Thank you to Calum for giving me an insight to a mechanic’s perspective.”

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