Nikita Mazepin must learn Haas is not a Mercedes - Guenther Steiner

Haas

Mazepin must learn Haas is not a Mercedes - Steiner

Mazepin has struggled to adapt to the pressures of F1

Sam Hall

Monday 26 April 2021 11:00

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner has warned driver Nikita Mazepin he must learn the VF-21 is not comparable to a Mercedes.

Before joining Haas, Mazepin had completed tests with both Force India - now Aston Martin - and Mercedes, and Steiner feels the Russian needs to accept his current car is not of the same standard as that he has previously tested.

The start to Mazepin's F1 career has been a struggle so far, with the 22-year-old spinning on numerous occasions.

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"I think he learned something but also he has to learn that our car is not as good as a Mercedes," Steiner said bluntly. "I’m very open about that one.

"I’m not trying to hide that for sure the Mercedes is a little bit less temperamental than our car."

Mazepin was in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons after being announced as a Haas driver late last year which led to him insisting ahead of pre-season testing that he wanted to do his talking on the track.

The season-opening Bahrain weekend was littered with errors, including a spin on lap one of the race which ended his debut after just three corners.

Although there was an improvement at Imola, Mazepin still crashed at the end of FP1 and lacked pace compared to team-mate Mick Schumacher throughout the weekend.

Asked if the transition from F2 to F1 was proving too much for his driver, Steiner said: "No, I think we [are] jumping to conclusions too early.

"For sure Bahrain, he had a few spins and, as you say, maybe F2 to F1 is still a difficult step. I don’t know.

"Bahrain was very difficult conditions as well, as I said before, at the end, I put it down to learning."

With regard to the Russian's frequent spins in the opening two weekends of the year, Steiner added: "Again, I can just repeat, we are here, we have got the whole year to learn.

"We haven’t got the whole year to spin but we are here, that is what we are trying to do this year."