F1 Testing: Nikita Mazepin Clarifies Team Radio Remarks on Lewis Hamilton

Haas F1 driver Nikita Mazepin took to Twitter to put out an explanation of the comments he had made on day 3 of testing. The Russian driver had come close to ramming into the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton, late in the day. On narrowly avoiding the 7-times world champion, Mazepin was heard saying on the team radio, “Hahahaha. I almost crashed into Lewis.”

Hamilton himself wasn’t enduring the best of days in his Mercedes W12. The Briton had already beached his car into the gravel once before. But this time, he stepped onto the throttle on his out lap and spun on the main straight. On rejoining the track, he almost ran into a zooming Mazepin who then made the aforementioned comment.

Knowing his prior history, F1 fans were not too amused with Mazepin’s sarcasm. But the Haas driver clarified what his response actually meant.

However, that wasn’t the only brush that Mazepin had with a fellow F1 driver. He had also tried a risky maneuver when running behind Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi on day 2 of testing.

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Nikita Mazepin explains Giovinazzi incident which almost sent him spinning

The Haas man said, “It’s a known topic that Formula 1 cars have a lot of downforce and do lose a lot of downforce following other cars.

“With such limited running and obviously a lot of cars being most likely in front of me at the start of the race in Bahrain, I wanted to experience the amount of downforce that I will lose.

“I did get to experience that. I almost crashed, to be honest, because the wind snap was huge. It was a bit of a worrying moment, but good to try.”

Overall, though, Nikita did get enough of time in the VF21 ahead of his rookie season, completing his three days of testing with no major accident.

It’ll be interesting to see what the Russian driver can achieve in his maiden season, considering he’s expected to round out the bottom of the drivers’ championship table. Could he spring a surprise and beat his more likable teammate Mick Schumacher? Only time will tell.