“I think that is something that I need to improve”– Nikita Mazepin intends to improve relations with co-workers at Haas amidst his tense partnership with Mick Schumacher in 2021

Nikita Mazepin didn’t have a smooth inclusion in the team due to minimal chemistry with his teammates; intends to improve relations.

In the 2021 season, Nikita Mazepin had his rookie season with Haas, and surely it wasn’t a desirable year for the Russian race driver. In the grid of 20 drivers, he finished P21, as Robert Kubica’s better finishing in two races as a substitute for Kimi Raikkonen displaced Mazepin.

Many of the factors that include in this poor performance by Mazepin according to him was the little chemistry with his co-workers. Now, going into his sophomore season in F1, he intends to improve relations.

“Learning how to act properly in the team, I think that is something that I need to improve,” the 22-year-old Russian driver told Motorsport.com this week in an exclusive interview.

“I feel very comfortable working with three, four or five people,” he continued. “But when it’s hundreds, I think I sometimes lack spending the amount of time I need and pay as much personal time as I need with people.

“That’s something that I need to do,” he acknowledged. “When the team’s so big, you need to come up with ideas on how do you unite everybody on a different continent.

“When the team is small you naturally get to talk about things,” he explained. “There’s like 40 people in the team, that’s a different thing.”

Also read: Haas’ Nikita Mazepin rates his Rookie season as 4/5 despite finishing 21 out of 20 drivers

Nikita Mazepin intends to balance things

Like any rookie, Mazepin had his own aspirations. However, now he realizes that he should balance things between his own goals and going ahead with the whole unit.

FP3 was over before it began for Nikita Mazepin 😫#QatarGP 🇶🇦 #F1 pic.twitter.com/uycKPyvgjk

— Formula 1 (@F1) November 20, 2021

“There are some key areas that you need to be doing,” he said. “It is your motivation because we’re human beings, and we obviously lack motivation at times like everybody else.

“We sometimes wake up in a bad mood, and we have no energy like other people, but we still have to go out there and perform. And how do you put that into a very good car balance? How do you put that into playing with the luck on your side when you’re racing?

“Because of the car being very difficult to drive and requires extra good balance, or extra work to find that good balance, that’s also something I need to improve on.”

Also read: Schumacher thinks he has seen enough to conclude that he is out of his league

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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