“So I think we are all at fault and nobody’s at fault”– Guenther Steiner finds nobody to blame for Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin fallout after qualifying

“So I think we are all at fault and nobody’s at fault”– Guenther Steiner says there is nobody to blame in Nikita Mazepin-Mick Schumacher conflict.

Haas’ duo on Saturday had a shocking fallout, with Nikita Mazepin accusing Mick Schumacher of violating the agreement they made this year and tried to sabotage his qualifying.

In response, Schumacher made his justification by claiming that his partner was slow on his out-lap, so he had to go ahead. With the conflicting statements, Guenther Steiner comes in to say that no driver is at fault.

“I think there’s no right or wrong,” explained Steiner, who has had to intervene several times this season following disagreements between Schumacher and Mazepin.

“We tried to maximize the drivers’ tyre temperature, and they both had different ways to do it. But it didn’t work out because, at the end of the lap, there was a queue again, so it got messy.”

“I think the biggest thing was people leaving very slow the pit lane, and if you try to make a gap where you don’t achieve it, because that’s the first queue.”

Nikita Mazepin later understood the situation

Steiner then claims of pacifying the situation and credited Mazepin with understanding his partner’s situation. He further said that Mazepin went to the media with partial knowledge.

“We clarified it afterwards what actually happened,” he said. “At the time he didn’t have the full information about what actually happened on the lap, so obviously he was pretty upset about it.”

“But what can you do? I mean, he went straight to the press. You guys got him straight [after qualy]. But we talked afterwards and it was not an easy situation which we ended up in, because there was more than one element to it.”

“I understand his frustration, but there was no intention or anything bad done intentionally.”

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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