F1 | French GP | Mazepin: "our position would have not changed"
Nikita Mazepin will start from the french Gran Prix from the 18th postion.
Nikita Mazepin will start the French Grand Prix from the 18th place after Yuki Tsunoda and Lance stroll didn´t manage to set a lap time. Motorlat had access to a brief meeting with the Russian driver after the qualifying session earlier today.
About the red flag caused by his team mate Mazepin said that “without the red flag for a lot of cars a lot of things would have been possible… I think talking about the pace of the car our position would have not changed. Was expecting to do a lap with a second set of tyres”
Mazepin reflected on the performance of the last races compared to this weekend “I felt the car was much more together in tracks like Monaco and Baku that´s potentially because these tracks have a lot of less combined traction which I feel is the weakest point of our cars. The car was very good on Friday and we made some changes today to try to fit the car for the race which I think went optimal for Qualifying. Hopefully it will give us an opportunity if opportunity arises on Sunday.”
When he was asked whether he thinks drivers who caused red flags should be punished, Nikita said “it´s a bit of a grey zone some people will be happy, some will be upset. I remember back in the Euro Cup Formula if you were the cause of the red flag they took the fastest lap away…However, if we´re talking about today. I´m gonna be a little bit pessimistic races are very long in F1 it´s not Formula Renault, F3 or F2 where you are able to keep that track position and I think probably Monaco and Baku would have been more interesting with that rule but it´s not for me to decide”
About the possibility of rains in the region tomorrow, Nikita said “I wasn’t very happy about the rain in my second race in Imola. It was a little bit too early after a very difficult opening race in Bahrain but now I think whatever the weather does with us I´m happy to take the job”
The young rookie added that in the drivers´ meeting there were no talks over the gentlemen agreement that many drivers have broken after he was harshly criticized in the first race.
