Red Bull’s rally cry after losing F1 pit stop record to McLaren

Red Bull mechanic Calum Nicholas says the team would “very much like it back” after losing their fastest pit stop record to McLaren.

The Milton Keynes outfit have built up a reputation of being the quickest guns in the paddock but that title now belongs to a team further down the grid.

In Qatar, McLaren snatched away the record of Red Bull as they performed a 1.8 second stop.

Red Bull praise McLaren but want fastest stop title back

The previous benchmark had been set at 1.82 by Red Bull when they changed Max Verstappen’s tyres at the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix and given the wheels have grown by five inches since then, it could have been expected that record was never to be broken.

But broken it has been with McLaren managing to change Norris’ tyres in McLaren just two one hundredths faster.

But Nicholas, who operates the rear right gun during a stop, wants that title back.

“我’m not annoyed at McLaren,” he told the Sky Sports F1 podcast. “I’m not annoyed at McLaren at all. They have done a fantastic job. That’s the thing about the sport, t doesn’t matter where you’re at, there’s always someone chasing you.

“Those guys worked super hard on their pitstops, they put in the hours, they’ve done an amazing bit of work. So not annoyed at McLaren at all.

“On the other hand, I would very much like it back. I imagine that all of my colleagues feel the same way. So now it’s just a case of get your head down, get practising and let’s see if we can get it, get it back to where we believe it belongs.”

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Nicholas also took time to praise McLaren’s feat especially considering the weight of the wheels being heavier now then they were in 2019.

“我t’s an impressive feat from them,” Nicholas, who has been with Red Bull for eight years, said. “Because obviously the wheels are heavier. There have been changes to the way that you can do a pitstop.

“我know that we are capable of beating that. With a pitstop, you’ve got 16, whatever, 20 people that all have to do their job perfectly within that two-second window.
“我t’s so many things that are needed to come together. So it’ll just be a case now of getting your head down, keep practising. We know we can achieve it and it would be a case of putting it all into practice and hoping that everything comes together.”

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