Nikita Mazepin’s Mistakes Always Hurts Haas F1 Team’s Budget: Steiner

It has not been an easy start to Haas driver Nikita Mazepin’s F1 campaign, as the Russian has constantly fallen under heat for his silly on-track mishaps, including spins and collisions.

Unlike other rookie drivers, the numbers have been quite high in terms of mistakes for Mazepin. And this poor run of form isn’t doing any good to the Haas F1 team either. Of course, the fear of failing to score a point this season could be haunting the team.

But what’s more, Haas aren’t a financially sound outfit. And every mistake that Mazepin causes could take a toll on the entire team’s financial budget.

During an interview, Haas’ boss, Guenther Steiner, too, acknowledged it and opined that the more Mazepin breaks the car, the higher is the financial damage.

What did Steiner say?

Steiner opined that it is practically impossible to figure out a “fixed accident budget,” as sometimes crashes may occur with rather old parts inside the car. In that case, the budget doesn’t usually take a drastic hit.

“It always hurts the budget. But of course, we have taken into account that there will be accidents. Here you go according to the empirical values ​​from previous years. So there is no fixed accident budget,” he told Auto Motor und Sport.

“It is also not always possible to simply set off a loss in terms of money. Sometimes a car had old parts on it that were at the end of their life anyway.”

Mazepin is certainly not doing well at the moment, and Steiner is very much aware of it. However, being the young Russian’s boss, Steiner has no other option but to back Mazepin amidst his ongoing struggles.

Haas F1 driver’s struggle-induced rookie season

Two race weekends have gone by and Mazepin has proved little so far. While his first race did not go beyond turn 3 of the first lap, the second race was much cleaner, yet still awful.

Mazepin did collide with Nicholas Latifi during the race, but the stewards eventually called it a racing incident. Interestingly, though, that incident was merely the tip of the iceberg.

The Haas driver was terribly slow compared to his teammate, Mick Schumacher, as the end result revealed almost a whopping 60-second gap between the two.

This came after Schumacher spun into the wall and drove around the circuit twice without the front wing before pitting to get a new one. Such has been the pace difference between the two.

But yes, we’ve seen incredible comebacks from drivers after an awful run of forms; Mazepin is in desperate need of such a comeback. S0, can the Russian show his true potential over the upcoming weekend in Portugal? Only time will tell.

Read More: “My Races Are Not Boring to Watch” – Nikita Mazepin