Formula 1 is a sport of extremely fine margins, where the most minute details can lead to success or failure. And in 2021, as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton duked it out for a championship, the battle spread to the most unlikely places.

Red Bull team mechanic Calum Nicholas has opened up about his experiences with the successful team — and has spilled some fascinating details about a costly Mercedes pit lane tactic.

Mercedes had a “very irritating” strategy for success

After several years of Mercedes domination, something changed during the 2021 Formula 1 season. No longer could Lewis Hamilton count on running away with the title — he was going to have to fight, hard, against Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

The battle was all-encompassing. Team bosses Toto Wolff and Christian Horner leaped at each others’ throats, prepared to defend their drivers to the end.

It makes sense, then, that the desire for success would permeate the entire paddock.

Now, Red Bull mechanic Calum Nicholas is sharing the details of one particularly crafty move by Mercedes that proved to create a massive headache for Red Bull in the pit lane.

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Nicholas has curated an impressive profile over the last decade, during which time he has served as a technician for Red Bull Racing. He has also developed a strong Internet presence on social media under the username @F1mech.

He has since leveraged that success to secure a book deal. His autobiography, Life in the Pitlane, will be released in 2025.

As part of the promotion for that book, Nicholas has also joined a slew of different podcasts, including the Road to Success podcast — which is where he shared this fascinating tale.

In the pit lane, Nicholas explained, cable management is critical. Most teams will keep pesky hoses or cables out of the way in the pit lane, out of respect for their fellow competitors.

“In 2021, Mercedes no longer did that,” Nicholas told the Road to Success podcast.

“Halfway through the year, they just left the cables hanging to make it harder for us.

“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.”

The wayward cables forced slower driving, and were also perhaps intended to psych out the Red Bull racers.

It was also all totally legal; there is no rule stating that teams must secure their cables. Rather, it’s more of a gentleman’s agreement between different manufacturers — and when it came time to claw back a title, Mercedes threw decorum to the wind.

Eventually, Nicholas explained, Red Bull decided to repay the favor. They, too, stopped securing their cables, giving Mercedes a hard time in return.

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