Guenther Steiner confident he can "stay objective" in Nikita Mazepin investigation

Haas

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Steiner confident he can "stay objective" in Mazepin investigation

Mazepin is being investigated by Haas for his "abhorrent" behaviour last week

Sam Hall

Tuesday 15 December 2020 09:04

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner believes he will have no problem remaining objective when considering what action the team will take against 2021 driver Nikita Mazepin after his "abhorrent" behaviour of last week.

On Wednesday last week, a video appeared on Mazepin's Instagram account in which he is seen groping a woman's breast. The woman reacts by showing her middle finger to the camera before covering the lens.

Although the video was swiftly deleted, and the woman vouched for Mazepin as a close friend and their conduct was just fooling around, it still drew widespread condemnation.

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Haas immediately confirmed it would deal with the matter internally once the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi had concluded.

Despite the Russian bringing substantial financial backing to the team following his appointment, team boss Steiner is confident whatever decision he makes will be in the best interests for all concerned.

“Yes I can make an objective assessment obviously," said Steiner.

"But as I said, I will deal with that in the coming week and maybe you guys will never know what was dealt with and what were the circumstances because I will keep them private.”

Questioned on his personal reaction to the incident, Steiner added: "I looked into it and I had no reaction because I need to stay objective so I had no reaction to it.

"I needed to get the facts together, speak with people, speak with the people involved and then I can make my assessment.

“In this case, my emotions don’t go high. It doesn’t get to me personally at that moment. I cannot do that because then I am not objective anymore and I need to be objective about everything in this case.”

Presented with the fact that 'in most organisations around the world, someone who did something like this would potentially lose their job', he replied: “As I said, I will not discuss it.

"This is a private thing between him and me and if you guys [the media] think I do not take it seriously, you can have your opinion. For me, I will do this my way and I don’t want to share that way. I’m sorry.”