Key Max Verstappen ally at Red Bull quits role for 'exciting' new job in F1

Red Bull F1 mechanic Calum Nicholas has announced he will no longer be part of the team working on Max Verstappen's car.

One of the more prominent mechanics in Formula 1, Nicholas has been a mechanic with Red Bull for a decade. However, he has now said on social media that he will no longer fulfil his dual role as senior power unit assembly technician and a member of the pit stop crew.

"The time has come to hang up my race suit," he wrote. "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 I've been very fortunate to work with an incredible group of people, in a team like no other. So, today, I'm very pleased to announce that I'll be taking on an exciting new role, as a Red Bull Racing ambassador!"

Nicholas' departure from Verstappen's garage makes him the latest of the Dutchman's close allies in the pit lane to have moved on. Last March, the former number one mechanic on his car, Lee Stevenson, announced that he had accepted a role with another team, before it was confirmed that he had joined Sauber.

At the end of the previous season, Verstappen's personal trainer Bradley Scanes also confirmed that he was leaving after four years in his role. He was replaced by Rupert Manwaring, who had been working with Carlos Sainz before the switch.

There have been several other departures from Red Bull on a wider scale, too. Car design guru Adrian Newey will start his new job with Aston Martin on March 3 while their long serving former sporting director, Jonathan Wheatley, will take up his role as Sauber team principal later in 2025. Strategy chief Will Courtenay was also poached by McLaren last year to become their new sporting director.

But while those other examples all left either for another team or to exit the sport altogether, Nicholas will remain involved with Red Bull in that ambassadorial role, though it is not currently clear what that job will entail.

Nicholas has become an author with his debut book, Life in the Pitlane, published this week. As part of his press tour to promote the title, he said it was "really exciting" to see Verstappen's old rival Lewis Hamilton starting afresh with Ferrari this year.

Nicholas said: "If you're going to get the best out of Lewis, it's going to be when he's fired up like a new opportunity like this at Ferrari. We're all aware it clearly means a great deal to him... I think Lewis will take great pleasure from taking the team back to glory."