F1 | Dutch GP | Steiner on Mazepin and Schumacher tension: “We don’t accept these behaviours; we will have to get that sorted”
The Post-Race media session with Haas’ team principal related to the tense relationship between the two drivers.
The Dutch Grand Prix has been a difficult one, for Haas and its drivers. Nikita Mazepin has been the protagonist of an unusual and potentially dangerous manoeuvre. He ended up with a DNF in the race and his teammate Mick Schumacher was in last position. Talking with some media, Mick said that he looked at that move as “not correct”, adding up that he would have needed to discuss it in an inner conversation with the whole team.
The situation is quite intricate and the tension could be felt in the media session, which comprehended a number of selected media – including MotorLat – and Haas team principal Guenther Steiner.
The session started with an observation, Nikita has been lucky considering the manoeuvre he made.
“Such things aren’t supposed to happen, we will have to fix this situation very fast” – Steiner pointed out.
Recalling the recent comments made by Schumacher, Guenther was asked to pick up a position on that manoeuvre, if he considers it correct or over the line. “It is a difficult one. I would say I don’t think we should blame Nikita too harshly but of course we will have to work on it and discuss it later in an inner meeting. We have talked with the engineers and we agreed that our priority are results. We don’t accept these behaviours; we will have to get that sorted”.
That was a tough Sunday for us but thanks as ever, for the support 🤝
— Haas F1 Team (@HaasF1Team) September 5, 2021
Mick crosses the line P18#HaasF1 #DutchGP pic.twitter.com/XT7Hf2qt9q
Can it be a good thing to come through this now when the two drivers are still rookies, instead of dealing with these problems in the next season?
“It’s never a good time to get through this, - Steiner stated – I’ve been through this before. It’s better now than next year because at least we have a bit of time to sort this before next season. We have bigger tasks and we will work this out.”
“We didn’t expect the gap that is creating now with the cars in front of us. I would not have anticipated in the beginning of the season” – he said, talking about Haas’ current situation on the track - everybody at Spa stopped the development on the 2021 car”.
Can such a relationship between teammates turn out as dangerous in the end and would he blame Nikita for this tension?
“I don’t think it’s dangerous. I’m asking more, to be honest. I’m looking at this scenario but I think it takes two to make a tango”.
Finally yet importantly, it was asked in German if what happened today will be able to be solved in time for Monza.
“I think that what happened today has been hard but doesn’t happen too often. We will work to avoid similar happenings in the future, starting from Monza”.
