F1 | Qatar GP | Nikita Mazepin “I´m just gonna enjoy what I´ll experience tomorrow”
Nikita Mazepin has had a very difficult weekend so far. Different complications didn´t allow him to get to know the track as much as his competitors did.
MotorLat had access to an online media session with Nikita Mazepin after another difficult day in Qatar.
“I still don´t know the track” he said and later added “I was in a press conference with Charles Leclerc and he said that it takes you 15 or 20 laps to learn a new circuit. I´ve done about 7 or 8 push laps this week…it´s upsetting but it is what it is”
About the start of Q1 incident he explained “The kerbs …have done a similar thing to me as they´ve done to Pierre Gasly but just on a lesser extent anything can happen tomorrow wiith them.”
When he was asked if this was his toughest weekend in F1 so far the Russian driver said “not toughest, is just no laps. I wouldn´t call the weekend because if you think I´ve had a lot of free time watching telly and trying to learn the track by watching what other people are doing it´s like playing virtual tennis on a play station preparing for a tournament”
When asked by MotorLat after the challenges he expects after a weekend with so many complications Nikita said “I´m expecting to know the track and where it´s going by the end of the race (laughs). I look at it as a positive, I look at it as an opportunity that in the end of the day it doesn´t make an awful lot difference if its 18 19 or 20th as a result but I think for future reference coming here it could help. Actually I heard today next time we´re here it´s a street circuit in 2023. I guess I´m just gonna enjoy what I´ll experience tomorrow. Last time I raced at night didn´t last very long so I´m gonna try and take it longer”
When he was asked on the damages his car got during the very few push laps he did and whether it was after attacking to hard, he explained “I think it is frustrating because by damaging the car you don´t need to leave or exceed the track limits…”
Whether this weekend was the worst weekend to have all the problems he had Nikita explained “I raced here 8 years ago and I haven´t expected to come back here so it´s not like you actually keep it in mind or you do it on the sim and it´s not like all teams have it on the sim before it was announced we would come here.” He added the track limits were different and finally concluded “it´s not the worst place it could have happen because there are much more dangerous tracks to drive on and try to do the lap if you don´t know them such as Monaco but I think things could be better.”
