'Big Conspiracy' Over Verstappen's Car Dismissed By Red Bull Mechanic On X

F1
Saturday, 17 August 2024 at 14:00
Close-up of Max Verstappen sitting in his car, fully focused, getting himself ready to go out on track
Famous Red Bull mechanic Calum Nicholas dismissed a conspiracy theory about Red Bull's performance loss in an amusing exchange on X.
The contrast between Red Bull's results at the start of the 2024 season and their position in the last few races before the summer break is quite unbelievable.
The team from Milton Keynes went from scoring three one-two results in the first four races to scoring only one podium (P2) in the last four races before the break.
Fans and F1 experts have a tough time understanding where this performance loss could have come from, which has led to quite a few conspiracies.
F1 journalist Peter Windsor shared his theory on X (formerly Twitter). In his post, he suggested that FIA told Red Bull to remove one of their clever solutions, which resulted in performance loss. He wrote:
“"Looks as though RBR might have been running a clever rear cross-brake inertia valve before they were obliged to remove it before Miami. This could explain Max's RR brake drama in MEL and his turn-in grief since China."”
This post must have appeared on Red Bull mechanic Calum Nicholas's feed, and he couldn't let it slide and had to respond: "Yea… this is bul****t…. Unsurprisingly."
One of the fans who had no idea who Calum Nicholas was then asked what made him so boldly claim that what Windsor wrote was untrue: "Scarbs doesn't think it is - what makes you say so?"
This was rather funny because the mechanic then simply responded that he was the one who had been working on Max Verstappen's RB20 for quite a while, implying that he would have the authority to speak on the matter:
“"I've been building the car for the last 14 races, he hasn't."”
Nicholas later explained that he cared about this topic because people do not give other teams the credit that they deserve and that not everything has to be a "conspiracy."
“"Actually, the only reason I care about this stuff is because, really, people should just be giving the other teams the credit they deserve for putting in the work and catching up. Not everything has to be some big conspiracy."”