{"id":258766,"date":"2025-11-03T02:18:30","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T02:18:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/258766\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T02:18:30","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T02:18:30","slug":"red-bull-mechanic-scarred-after-multiple-accidents-as-f1-hazard-draws-blood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/258766\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Bull mechanic ‘scarred’ after multiple accidents as F1 hazard draws blood"},"content":{"rendered":"

Calum Nicholas, the former Red Bull mechanic, has revealed that he has been left with scars from handling the \u2018aero rakes\u2019 used for F1 testing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nicholas spent a decade at Red Bull Racing between 2015 and 2025, working as a senior engine technician for the Milton Keynes-based team.<\/p>\n

Red Bull mechanic left with \u2018scars\u2019 from F1 testing aero rakes<\/p>\n

The former Marussia mechanic announced in February that he had left the garage for good, taking a new role as a Red Bull Racing ambassador.<\/p>\n

Aero rakes are regularly spotted during testing to help teams measure the air pressure over the car, providing the teams with data in real time as the car circulates on track.<\/p>\n

Taking to social media, Nicholas has revealed that the devices were responsible for many an injury during his time in the garage.<\/p>\n

The F1 pit lane can be a dangerous place<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0Trouble in the pits: The 12 biggest pit-lane incidents in Formula 1 history<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0Drivers beware: The nasty injuries sustained away from the F1 racetrack<\/a><\/p>\n

He wrote: \u201cI can\u2019t tell you how many scars I have from working around these things during pre-season testing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd even when you were bleeding, you\u2019d still be more worried about whether you\u2019d broken it or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nicholas\u2019s message was accompanied by a laughter emoji.<\/p>\n

He went on to describe the aero rakes as \u201cthorny skin magnets\u201d, revealing that he has been caught by them in the finger, elbow and neck over the years.<\/p>\n

Asked by a fan to explain the repair process after breaking an aero rake, he quipped: \u201cThe process for me? Apologise to the sparky, then walk away before I make it worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThankfully, they\u2019re usually only on for the first couple of runs of the day. But yea [sic], pain in the a**!\u201d<\/p>\n

More on Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing from PlanetF1.com<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 Max Verstappen news<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 Red Bull news<\/a><\/p>\n

Nicholas\u2019s latest social media posts come after he took exception in September to a fan\u2019s suggestion<\/a> that F1 mechanics have a \u201cthree-second work shift\u201d due to today\u2019s fast pit-stop times.<\/p>\n

Responding to the fan, who later deleted his post and apologised for his remark, Nicholas said:\u00a0\u201cThis is why so few people in the paddock interact on here by the way. Bs opinions like this. It\u2019s embarrassing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAverage salary for an F1 Tech is closer to \u00a360k by the way. The average working week is about 70 hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost fly economy, and nobody gets paid more for being on the pit crew.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added:\u00a0 \u201cMy first salary travelling the world in F1 at 22 was \u00a342k.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith no responsibilities at home, it felt like I\u2019d hit the lottery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read next:\u00a0F1 uncovered: Red Bull still developing the RB21 to unlock its full potential<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Calum Nicholas, the former Red Bull mechanic, has revealed that he has been left with scars from handling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,818,806,805,803,804,44,918,85],"class_list":["post-258766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-home-page","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-news","tag-red-bull","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}