As the grid forms for this weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, keep a close eye on the crews around the two Red Bull cars. The No 1 mechanic position on each car is held by identical twin brothers, Matt and Jon Caller. These two parallel, pivotal roles within the same team are occupied by the pair who previously worked together on the world champion Max Verstappen’s car. While brothers working in Formula One is not uncommon, identical twins ending up in identical positions across the garage from each other would not have been predicted by anyone.
Now 34, Matt was born 30 minutes before Jon. Matt serves as the No 1 mechanic on Verstappen’s car as the Dutchman aims to secure his fourth consecutive title in Nevada, while Jon holds the same position on teammate Sergio Pérez’s car. “We never imagined this could happen, even to the point where we started working in the same team together,” says Matt. “That in itself was a novelty. We were on Max’s car together, both on the back-end, I was the rear-end mechanic and Jon was the gearbox man. Then fast forward to now and we are both No 1s on our respective cars. I don’t think anyone could have scripted that.”
“We are both gunmen [operating the wheel gun during tyre changes] as well, so even in the pit crew we do the same job,” adds Jon, sharing a laugh. “I don’t know if it’s just meant to be, but we just can’t seem to stay apart.” They have been with the team for almost as long as Verstappen himself. Matt joined in 2015, while his brother was enjoying a successful career as a mechanic in touring cars and prototypes. When Red Bull was in search of a new mechanic, they asked Matt if he could recommend anyone. “I said: ‘Funnily enough, I have a carbon copy, my twin brother who is pretty handy with the spanners,” Matt recalls.
Jon joined in 2017 and since then, both have worked closely with the world champion, who can secure the title this weekend if he finishes ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris. Unsurprisingly, they have a strong respect and admiration for the Dutchman. “We have witnessed the entire meteoric rise of Max Verstappen,” says Matt. “It’s been a privilege to work with him. He’s a great guy, ridiculously fast and ridiculously talented. No nonsense and very easy to get along with. Max is so talented that he can get in pretty much anything and it will go fast. With Max, you see it every weekend for the most part, especially at circuits we have never been to before, he will just go out and be at absolute race pace straight off the bat, lap one, practice one, he will be there straight away.”
“To come in at the youth of his F1 career and work with a driver like Max Verstappen and to see where he is now, on the verge of a fourth world title is something incredible,” adds Jon. “He is not slowing down any time soon. As long as we keep providing him with the machinery, there is no stopping him really. He sometimes gets bad press but he’s not arrogant, he’s not short with people, he just knows what he wants out of a car and what needs to be delivered. When you give it to him, he wins races. It’s very simple.”
While they are lighthearted and great company, for all the brothers’ obvious similarities, they are distinctive characters. “We have our own personalities, our own ways of thinking,” agrees Jon. “We are similar in our makeup, so we do similar things but we still have different opinions on things and decisions on how best to go about certain things. But we are beyond having scraps about it in the garden like we did when we were kids, we are a bit more professional in the pit lane now.”
They grew up watching F1 with their father on the sofa and, sharing a bent for engineering, followed it together, attending the same school, college, and then Swansea University, before splitting up for the first time as Matt went to work in single seaters and Jon in touring cars, followed by a reunion and advancement to identical roles at Red Bull. “It will dawn on me later in life how special and unique this situation is,” Jon observes.
So what of sibling rivalry then, especially with Verstappen riding high and Pérez struggling? “We have always been competitive since we were little,” says Jon. “We are always looking to try and beat each other in whatever we do and the same goes for this. Every time we turn up, I would like to win a race and I know Matt would like to win a race, but it is never ill-mannered.” “We just enjoy racing, competitive sport, whatever it might be,” Matt concurs. “It’s always been competitive but it’s a nice competition rather than an aggressive one. If I see Jon winning a race or a pole position, I am proud because it’s really nice to see him excelling.”
“The first time I thought this is a bit mad, was the start of this year, which was Jon’s first race as No 1 on Checo’s car and my first on Max’s as No 1,” says Matt. “As we were sending the cars to the grid, we were looking at each other and it was like: ‘This is odd, isn’t it? We’ve made it.’” “We both burst out laughing at the uniqueness of it,” says Jon. “We are just two lads that like building race cars and we have somehow fallen into these two positions. It’s a pinch yourself moment.”
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