Well-known Red Bull pit crew member Calum Nicholas – who worked with the Austrian team for 10 years – has posted online about how much they truly earn.
Before joining Red Bull, Calum was a member of the Marussia paddock, and has over 40,000 followers on X (formerly known as Twitter).
He oversaw many of Red Bull’s tire changes when they clinched the World Constructors’ Championship in 2022 and 2023, and recently released a book titled ‘Life In The Pitlane’.
 ‘Nobody gets paid’ for being a member of the pit team
Although mechanics do a lot of work behind the scenes, it seems how much they earn is overestimated. | Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images
On the Monday after the Italian Grand Prix, X user @jrdn44 posted a now-deleted tweet stating that a member of the McLaren pit crew should be ‘located’ and ‘fired’ for a mistake he made during a Lando Norris pit stop at Monza.
The post read:
“No we seriously need to locate that front left wheel gun man and get him fired, you are earning £350,000 a YEAR, more than 95% of the world’s population for a maximum of a 3-second WORK SHIFT EVERY TWO WEEKS…”
Nicholas’ response read:
“This is why so few people in the paddock interact on here by the way. Bs opinions like this. It’s embarrassing.
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.”
Nicholas mentions the hours worked – roughly 70 hours – and the wage they earn which is around around £60,000 (approximately $81,300), but how much is this in comparison to the wealth accumulated by drivers on the grid?
This is why so few people in the paddock interact on here by the way. Bs opinions like this. It’s embarrassing.
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… https://t.co/1X1iXwtoUq
— Calum Nicholas (@F1mech) September 8, 2025Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen salaries
Lewis Hamilton is a seven-time World Champion and switched to Ferrari at the start of this season where he is reportedly earning $60 million per year. Max Verstappen, meanwhile, is reportedly earning even more – estimated to be at $65 million per year.
IMAGO / NurPhoto
In contrast, that puts their base annual salary at around 1000 times greater than what the average engineer earns over the same time period.
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