Red Bull mechanic praises “brave” Lewis Hamilton for “inspiring” F1 change

Red Bull mechanic Calum Nicholas has lauded Lewis Hamilton for his push for more diversity in F1, labelling the seven-time world champion as “brave” and “inspiring”.

Over recent years, Hamilton has been central to F1’s efforts to become more inclusive and open to people of all backgrounds.

The Hamilton Commission was created to address barriers to black representation in motorsport.

Hamilton also founded Mission 44, a charity that promotes diversity and inclusion in motorsport.

His fight for greater diversity also impacted his former team, Mercedes, which adopted a striking black livery for the 2020 season.

Mercedes described the livery as a way to show “the team’s commitment to fighting racism and promoting diversity and inclusion.”

Even though Hamilton has left the team, Toto Wolff has confirmed they will continue to sport black to support Hamilton’s message.

Speaking on the High Performance podcast, Nicholas, a high-profile engineer for Red Bull, discussed Hamilton’s impact on the sport and how his push for diversity only enhances his legacy.

“I think we’re making progress,” he said. A huge part of the fact we’re making progress is down to what Lewis did. Lewis forced the conversation that plenty of us wanted to have for years.”

When asked how “brave” Hamilton has been, Nicholas added: “Honestly, like for me, I will always appreciate Lewis’ racecraft and his achievements, his ability on track, but for me, personally, his legacy and the most important thing he will have ever done is to start this conversation.

“He put himself out there. It was a great personal risk and expense. He wanted to fund independent research into the reasons why we were lacking this diversity.

“He put his own time which isn’t an easy thing for someone to do - to put in their own time when you’re in his position - to do it right. We’re making progress. We’re getting better.”

Hamilton will leave F1 “in a much better place”

Even though Hamilton has made the move to Ferrari for the 2025 season, he confirmed that diversity push was a “priority” in his negotiations with the team.

Nicholas revealed that he had the chance to sit down with Hamilton before the launch of the Hamilton Commission to give his perspective - an encounter that “inspired” him to become more vocal.

“Just before Lewis officially launched the Hamilton Commission. I got the opportunity to sit down with him and some other engineers in the paddock,” he explained.

“We discussed what we felt what the barriers were from our own experiences. We gave our feedback to him and did a case study for the group that we’re doing all of his Hamilton commission research. It was inspiring to sit down with someone and see how passionate they are about something that I had an interest in but not enough knowledge about at the time”

“It’s one of the few things over the years that has inspired me. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt really inspired by anything rise. I got the impression from Lewis that this is important and it doesn’t matter what other people think. It’s important and we’re going to change the sport. And because of that bravery he had, he’s going to leave this industry in a much better place than he found it.”