Nikita Mazepin defends Steiner “impatient” tag

Haas

Mazepin defends Steiner “impatient” tag

Russian rookie has made many mistakes in his first three races

Will Gray

Saturday 8 May 2021 13:45

Nikita Mazepin has defended himself against comments from his Haas team principal Guenther Steiner that he has so far been “impatient” in debut F1 season.

Mazepin, who joined Haas from F2 alongside Mick Schumacher, crashed out on the first lap of his first race in Bahrain and has had numerous spins and been repeatedly criticised by his rivals since.

The Russian's issues led Steiner to explain recently that Mazepin “wants to show what he can do and is a bit impatient himself” before adding “then something happens".

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Speaking ahead of this weekend’s fourth race of the season in Spain, Mazepin said: “Impatient, I think, means you want a lot, so there are negatives and positives in that phrase.

“I definitely was on the impatient side due to my inexperience and big ambitions in Sakhir. I obviously had two half days of testing there and I was able to get the car in a place where I felt very happy and comfortable with it.

“But then the conditions changed and the wind picked up and I did not anticipate how much of a difference that would have. Now, I believe I have taken a big step forward in getting my patience back.”

The Haas is currently the worst car on the grid, and as rookies both Mazepin and Schumacher are finding it tough to find the limits in a machine that is hard to handle.

Schumacher claimed to have found a breakthrough in the last race, but Mazepin revealed that his side of the garage is still searching for a solution to a dramatic change in the car since pre-season testing.

“I’m not entirely happy with the car yet,” he said. “I’ve experienced a very big change in car balance, feel, and what the car does, ever since the Barhain test was finished. Therefore, I am trying to investigate why it has happened.

“We have a few ideas and hopefully moving forward we will put a nail on that and get it sorted. Being rookies I guess you improve so much every weekend that you will continue improving the same, if not more, until round 23.”