F1 | Mazepin: "I am definitely the better version of myself.”
Nikita Mazepin aims for “an improvement in every direction and every area as well from last year” as the 2022 F1 season approaches.
Haas avoided all development of the VF-21 to focus on their 2022 challenger, the VF-22. The American outfit was the first team to unveil their new car for the upcoming season as they hope to return to the midfield and battle for points after a year at the back of the grid. Speaking in Haas’ official pre-season Q&A released to the media, Russian racer Nikita Mazepin shared his thoughts for the year ahead after a ‘very intense’ 2021.
Nikita Mazepin is a driver that splits opinion. As a result of having his billionaire father Dmitry heavily backing Haas financially, the Russian youngster is surely racing with a lot of pressure. As well as this, having his teammate being the Ferrari-backed 2020 Formula 2 champion Mick Schumacher has resulted in a divisive fan base irrespective of the performance of the car or driver. Although, Mazepin’s social media remarks and conduct in the past certainly did him no favours either.
Nikita Mazepin was unable to score a point in 2021 and the same was said for Mick Schumacher. Due to competing in an underdeveloped VF-21 and resigned to being at the back of the grid, week in week out, the inter team battle was intense. Despite both drivers making errors over the course of the season, Schumacher seemed more settled in the team than his teammate as a result of a variety off-track incidents for the young Russian rookie hitting the headlines.
Over the course of 2021, a combination of good PR and steady racing built up Mazepin’s fanbase. His Instagram followers have passed the half a million mark but are still 2 million less than his teammate, Mick Schumacher’s, number of followers. Considering that the Haas Team only has 1.7 million followers, it is clear who the star of the show is as the 2022 F1 season approaches.
With a full season under his belt, Nikita Mazepin is now more experienced as well as wiser but also not one to live in the past, as he told the recent Haas Q&A:
“I don’t think about last year…I enjoy the day-to-day motions and the routine and I very rarely look back. Only in terms to analyse and improve…I look forward to tomorrow. I don’t focus too much on last year. We were going into the year knowing it’s going to be a foundation to the ’22. But this year the biggest thing is the driver’s have the biggest ability to influence the car.”
Having spent the off season back home in Russia and travelling around doing extreme sports, Mazepin is aware of the lessons learnt in 2021: “Never giving up, there’s a lot of consequences in F1 that can very quickly change…believe that tomorrow can be very different from today.”
Change is what the VF-22 will hopefully bring to Haas and as much as the new breed of machines are aesthetically pleasing, performance is what counts with Mazepin remarking:
“I like the look of the cars, I think they look very futuristic versus previous years…but I’m here to race and driving the car that looks great is incredible but I’m more looking forward to what the regulations are. Hopefully they’re going to enable drivers to do on track and close battles on track like in Formula 2.”
It is not lost on Nikita Mazepin that he has less experience than a large majority of the current F1 field of racers, but the Russian driver is confident in his ability.
“It’s helpful to do 10 or 15 years in Formula One because F1 isn’t just driving it’s also the processes and even though the cars have changed the processes have been the same, the people and the way of working has been the same. If I could choose to have 15 years’ experience going into this year, I would take it but I’m confident that what I have is strong enough to bring to the table.”
Any success from last year, albeit always out of the points, only came through misfortune to others. With Mazepin not shying away from the fact that “Last year we could succeed on other people’s failure.” As such, the expectation for 2022 is very different:
Whereas this year I feel like we have just as much in our hands to be able to compete as other people. But more so I feel like we sacrificed last year for this year and it’s not a matter of checking if we can or not succeed, it’s a matter of just getting it done and it’s both myself, who had a difficult year last year, and it’s also for the team. But it will be a difficulty if they don’t do well.”
In 2021, during the weekend of the Russian Grand Prix, Mazepin welcomed young fan Makar into the Haas garage as part of his work with the Podarok Angelou Foundation, a charity that works with children suffering from cerebral palsy. Having previously and regretfully conceded to Gpfans.com that he would have been unlikely to consider this partnership were it not for some "very harsh" lessons learned early in his F1 tenure, Mazepin is not letting up on his charity work any time soon:
“As race season went into off season my [charitable] activities if anything just ramped up from racing season into the areas I felt were important to me and enjoyable to take part in. So, I’ve joined the board of the charity foundation I am supporting. We are going to have a very exciting and long 2022 with new projects and hopefully a few more kids happy.”
As ambitions go, that is a lovely one to have.
There are clear changes to Nikita Mazepin a year on, with the Russian commenting that it is ‘difficult to notice the changes within yourself…I must have improved and grew up and I am definitely the better version of myself.”
Mistakes were made, apologies followed as well as consequences. With the new season ahead of him, Nikita Mazepin hopes for “an improvement in every direction and every area as well from last year.” So, let’s hope that people now give him the opportunity to show what he can do on track as his actions off track appear to be resolved. Everyone deserves a second chance and Nikita Mazepin is no different.
