Former Red Bull mechanic Calum Nicholas estimated in September 2025 that an average Formula 1 technician earns about £60,000 a year. He also said the typical working week is about 70 hours and that pit-stop duty does not bring extra pay. These are his approximate statements—not a published Red Bull salary scale or a verified pay rate for every F1 team or role.
What is the estimated F1 pit crew salary?
The best-supported recent estimate is about £60,000 a year for an F1 technician, according to Nicholas, a former Red Bull mechanic, in a post dated September 8, 2025. His wording was: “Average salary for an F1 Tech is closer to £60k by the way.” The figure describes an estimated technician average; it is not a formal statistical average or a disclosed salary specifically for pit-stop work. Formule1.nl reported Nicholas’s estimate and comments, and PlanetF1 covered the same remarks.
There is no reliable public team-by-team pay table in the cited reporting. RACER’s Chris Medland said in December 2024 that his own estimate was “$60k a year and up,” but explicitly described it as rough and noted that teams do not freely disclose wage structures. That older dollar estimate is a separate, secondhand figure—not a direct comparison with Nicholas’s later estimate in pounds. RACER’s Q&A explains the uncertainty.
Why pit crew members are not paid just for a few seconds
The seconds an audience sees during a stop are one part of a much broader job. Pit-stop duties are generally performed by mechanics and logistics staff alongside their regular work, rather than by employees hired only to do stops. Nicholas said nobody receives additional pay simply for being on the pit crew: “Most fly economy, and nobody gets paid more for being on the pit crew.”
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Formula 1’s feature on Haas crew members Matt Thompson, Monique Hurrell and Marcus Farrer describes the stop and the work they do across the rest of a race weekend. The stop is the most visible moment, not a complete picture of their working role. Read Formula 1’s feature on the crew’s race-weekend duties.
What does a 70-hour week mean?
Nicholas said the average working week was “about 70 hours.” That is his approximate description, not a published time-use study or a guarantee that every team member works the same schedule. It helps explain why a salary estimate should be considered against the job’s broader workload, rather than divided by the few seconds a pit stop takes.
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Is £60,000 an entry-level salary?
No such conclusion follows from Nicholas’s estimate: he described an average for an F1 technician, not a current starting rate or a range by experience. PlanetF1 also reported that Nicholas recalled earning £42,000 as his first salary while travelling in F1 at age 22. That is his personal historical starting salary, not a current entry-level benchmark.
What the available figures can—and cannot—tell you
- Useful headline: Nicholas’s approximate 2025 estimate is about £60,000 a year for an F1 technician.
- Pit-stop premium: Nicholas said there was no additional pay for pit-crew assignment.
- Limits: The cited sources do not establish a formal salary survey, a median, a current entry-level rate, a pay range by job grade, or team-specific salaries.
- Disputed claim: The £350,000 figure circulated in an online claim after a slow McLaren stop at Monza; Nicholas disputed it. It is not a supported salary figure.
For readers interested in an F1 career
Nicholas has also discussed careers in motorsport in his book Life in the Pitlane. In a March 2025 interview, he said he wanted the book to offer advice to people asking about getting into the industry. It provides career context, not verification of a particular salary. Motorsport.com’s interview discusses the book and his motivation for writing it.
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