Nikita Mazepin has said that he is ready for the season ahead as the Russian gets prepared for his maiden Formula 1 campaign.

The Russian rookie will make his Grand Prix debut at the same circuit in two weeks, completing over seventy laps as he gets ready for his Grand Prix debut.

"Well, we're in a difficult situation, but regardless of the team's plans, the driver's job is to maximise the performance of the car; my goal is to go as forward as I can possibly go," Mazepin told selected members of the media, including MotorLat.com. 

"It was important to get a lot of laps in as your going to be limited with how much running you're going to get this year, so the more laps I do, the more familiar I will be with the car, in regards to no development work we've got a good foundation with the car to build upon and hopefully that foundation will help us go even further in development in.

Mazepin's first day of testing was affected by far from ideal weather conditions, which saw strong winds and a sandstorm roll into Bahrain.

"There was a lot of changes in the conditions between yesterday's evening session and today's morning session; yesterday was the most extreme day I've seen in Bahrain with the amount of sand and the conditions driving wise was very difficult, having very little experience in Formula 1 expected it to always be like this but with the amount of wind and sand staying in the asphalt that was a negative effect, but at the end of the day we had a smooth run."

However, despite these setbacks, the Russian feels ready to go for his Formula 1 debut as he becomes only the fourth Russian driver to take their place on the Formula 1 grid.

"I feel prepared; obviously, if you gave me ten more minutes on the track, I would take it, as that's the nature of what we currently live in at the moment, but I think I am in a good place of starting my career in Formula 1 the team has been incredibly helpful and incredibly good, with managing a young driver like me, so that's something I didn't really expect coming into a team that only had experienced drivers, so I am very happy about that."

"Yeah, I am hugely confident that over the next 365 days, we can go further together as a group of people."

Mazepin will be back in the car for the Sunday evening session whilst Mick Schumacher will be in the Haas for the morning.