Steiner to hold clear-the-air talks with feuding Haas drivers before Monza

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Steiner to hold clear-the-air talks with feuding Haas drivers before Monza

Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin collided again at Zandvoort

Ewan Gale

Monday 6 September 2021 10:35

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner is to hold clear-the-air talks with feuding drivers Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin before this weekend's Italian Grand Prix in a bid to calm fraying tempers.

Schumacher and Mazepin initially clashed following qualifying at Zandvoort, with the Russian driver claiming his German team-mate had broken unwritten in-house rules.

During the early stages of the race, Mazepin closed the door on Schumacher at full throttle as the track narrowed at pit entry, leading to a broken front wing on the latter's VF-21 and ruining his race in an attempt to avoid a nasty crash.

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Schumacher has since claimed that he doubts his relationship with Mazepin can be repaired, leading to Steiner now set to try and resolve the issue before Monza.

On the incident, Steiner said: "It is a difficult one. I would say there is no one to be blamed on this. We need to work on it because, after our meeting, we haven't come to a conclusion.

"Our plan is to meet before Monza and see what we need to do to avoid this in the future. It doesn't help anybody. I tried to explain that one and we will work on it and try to get it sorted."

Suggesting Schumacher was just as culpable as Mazepin for the incident, Steiner added: "You can always say it is dangerous, you can avoid danger.

"I don't think it was a nasty move, to be honest, but I looked at the scenario and it always takes two to tango."

Steiner - "It is not easy to bang their heads"

Haas is looking to build on its early switch to 2022 in order to climb the standings when the new cars are introduced next year but will need both drivers to work together to help the team develop.

Asked how this could be achieved, Steiner explained: "That is the exact discussion we have had with them, and their race engineers were involved in it as well so they know what is going on.

"It is not easy to bang their heads together but you have to come to some conclusion otherwise you need to put rules in place."