Former Red Bull mechanic calls Verstappen and Red Bull's 2023 season a 'massive surprise'

Max Verstappen cruised to his third world title during that season, winning a record 19 out of the 22 Grands Prix, while also finishing on the podium 21 times in the campaign, which was also another record he smashed for the most podiums in a season.

Red Bull Racing also broke records of their own, running out winners at 21 of the 22 Grands Prix in 2023 to earn the record for the highest percentage of Grand Prix wins by a team throughout a season with 95.45%.

During that season, Nicholas was on Verstappen's side of the garage, and he and many others at Red Bull did not see the domination they had coming in 2023.

"2022, we knocked it out of the park with the new regulations, and we knew it would take at least a season for teams to catch up," the Brit explained on the Track Limits podcast.

"If you look back to the beginning of the 2022 season, we were in a battle with Ferrari, at least in the first half, for that reason. Then, in the second half, we pulled away and we did what we needed to do. But for me and many others in the garage, we fully went into 2023 expecting we would be in a battle from the off, so the way that season went was a massive surprise. We expected that our competitors would have caught us by then," continued Nicholas.

Before the beginning of the 2025 season, Nicholas stepped away from the garage after 15 years of working as a mechanic, taking part in 13 F1 seasons.

In 2024, he was able to see one more Verstappen title come through the door, a title that was far harder fought against McLaren and Lando Norris.

"The vast majority of the people in the garage, we are used to that pressure. Anyone who survived 2021, you were ready for 2024," the Brit explained when asked if the Austrian team were ready to take on the challenges in 2024 after a superb 2023.

"When we got to 2024, that challenge came, and we were like, 'Right, let's get back to it. We're ready for this. We are not averse to it'. Of course, it was a great shame that we couldn't hold onto the constructors. But ultimately, the challenge itself, we're always ready," Nicholas concluded.