"The time has come to hang up my race suit": Red Bull's Calum Nicholas calls time on his career

Red Bull mechanic Calum Nicholas announced that It was time for him to hang his race suit as he exited from the sport ahead of the start of the 2025 season. Nicholas, who served as Senior Power Unit Assembly Technician at the Austrian team, had been part of the Milton-Keynes outfit for more than a decade.

The F1 engineer became a key part of the team in the last couple of years as he helped get them the record of the fastest pit stop. He also gained significant popularity for his appearances in the Netflix series 'Drive to Survive'.

The Red Bull mechanic announced his retirement from the sport on his Instagram account and wrote:

"The time has come to hang up my race suit… 15 years of racing as a mechanic, 13 Formula One seasons, 233 Grands Prix, 4 World Drivers' Championships, 2 World Constructors' Championships & 7 consecutive pitstop awards... it's a career that I'm incredibly proud to look back on."

"To all of those who’ve been a part of this amazing journey, thank you! For the last decade of my life l've been very fortunate to work with an incredible group of people, in a team like no other. So, today, l'm very pleased to announce that I'll be taking on an exciting new role, as an ambassador!" he added.

Whilst doing the interviews for his new book 'Life in the Pitlane', the Red Bull man had hinted about leaving the sport in the future.

Red Bull engineer Calum Nicholas sheds light on his future in F1

Red Bull engineer Calum Nicholas stated that he did not want to work in Formula 1 anymore due to the extended calendar in the past couple of years taking a toll on his life.

While appearing on the Road to Success podcast, Nicholas gave his take on the 24-race calendar since the 2024 season and said:

"I don't want to do anymore. By the time you've done preseason testing, the odd tire test in the middle, and the Abu Dhabi test at the end of the season, you're away for the best part of 200 days a year. Some teams have already have introduced staff rotation. I think that's going to become necessary for pretty much every team in the future."

The sport has been focusing on expanding the calendar ever since the new ownership, Liberty Media, took charge in 2017. There has been a lot of interest from countries across the world to host F1 races in the future to make the sport more accessible.

To combat the challenge of 24 races, the F1 teams had already started having a rotational on-track staff to better operate and maximize their performances.