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Red Bull mechanic opens up about battle with Mercedes: 'That was very irritating'
- Savannah Lenz
Calum Nicholas, Red Bull Racing team mechanic, has opened up about what happened between Red Bull and Mercedes during the 2021 season, makin it clear that the battle was not only between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. Nicholas speaks on how the fight extended behind the scenes and how the two pit crews took the competition to each other in the pit lane as well.
The 2021 rivalry between Verstappen and Hamilton of course engulfed their teams as well, drawing in team bosses Christian Horner and Toto Wolff, as well as the mechanics in the garages. Nicholas, who works as a Senior Power Unit Assembly Technician at Red Bull, shares precisely how Mercedes tried to slow the Austrian team down in the pit lane.
While moving the cables in the pit lane is not mandatory, most teams generally see it as an unwritten rule to follow. However, in 2021, the German F1 team did not see it as such. Mercedes apparently left cables in the pitlane so that Verstappen and his teammate Sergio Perez would have to drive around them, thus slowing them down.
Red Bull mechanic on battle with Mercedes
"In 2021, Mercedes no longer did that. Halfway through the year, they just left the cables hanging to make it harder for us," Nicholas told Road To Success podcast. "It was very irritating because, of course, the drivers have to drive around those cables, and that makes it more difficult to drive into the garage."
Red Bull eventually decided to do the same thing to Mercedes and stopped moving their cables. Nicholas also mentions a clip of Red Bull Racing's Logistics Manager, Mark Willis, standing beside their cables and not flinching even as a Mercedes car narrowly missed him.
This article was written in collaboration with Nicole Mulder.
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