Haas fear Abu Dhabi write-off after Nikita Mazepin left with "abandoned" chassis

Mazepin, Perez, Haas, Red Bull, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia — Photo: © LAT Images

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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Haas fear Abu Dhabi write-off after Mazepin left with "abandoned" chassis

Mazepin has lost chassis at both of the last two F1 events

Sam Hall

Thursday 9 December 2021 14:45

Guenther Steiner fears Haas could face a write-off at the F1 season finale in Abu Dhabi due to a shortage of chassis that has left Nikita Mazepin using an "abandoned" backup option.

Mazepin damaged his lighter Haas chassis on the kerbs in Qatar and was forced to revert to the "spare" for last weekend's inaugural Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

On the first restart in Jeddah, however, Mazepin's backup chassis was also damaged after running into the rear of George Russell's Williams, leaving the team short on chassis and concerned for the season-ending weekend.

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“The two last races, not only Saudi but also Qatar, we had some damage and there was no time to make new parts," explained Steiner.

“Our stock is pretty low on parts but we have got enough to do the race if we don’t have any big accidents on Friday. It will be okay."

Confirming the drivers have both been made aware of the precarious nature of the situation, Steiner added: “Chassis change is the biggest one because obviously, we had two chassis [damaged].

"One was damaged in Qatar and one was damaged in Saudi Arabia, so we have got an issue with the chassis.

“The rest of the parts, the stock is not high but we have got enough wings and floors so we should be okay with that one.

“But normally when you do a chassis you do other parts as well, so we just need to be a little bit careful on Friday but then we will be okay.

“It’s not like we are in a panic situation, we just need to be careful on Friday.”

Despite Mazepin's chassis problems, Mick Schumacher's remarkably survived the crash that caused the initial red flag in Saudi Arabia.

Reflecting on his luck, Mazepin said: “I have used the spare chassis ever since Qatar which was the heavy chassis.

"The spare chassis has been written off in Saudi, so that leaves us with a chassis that we have both abandoned, me and my team-mate, in the beginning of the year.

“But that is our only option to go out on track and we are having to be using that.”