“That is my bigger concern” – Haas team principal Guenther Steiner was referring to the coming together between Nikita Mazepin and Kimi Raikkonen in the pit stop during the Hungarian Grand Prix.
In what was a crazy Hungarian GP, Nikita Mazepin met his end after the Alfa Romeo of Kimi Raikkonen collided with him as the latter was being released from his pit bay. Alfa Romeo have since called it an error due to traffic light failure.
For Haas boss Guenther Steiner, though, it was a great learning opportunity missed for his rookie driver. Especially when his partner Mick Schumacher gained valuable experience by racing closely with giants Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.
In a race where both Williams drivers George Russell and Nicholas Latifi opened their points account, Mazepin might have missed out on a golden opportunity to score a point.
But Steiner feels this wouldn’t have been possible anyway. Haas are yet to open their points account this season, as they pivot their focus to the 2022 season.
“For me, the biggest thing is Nikita missed another race where he could have learned a lot of things. That is my bigger concern than the [missed] points at the moment.
“It happened, you cannot make it right and hopefully, we learn something out of that. It was very disappointing because there was no need for it. Sometimes these things happen.
“They shouldn’t happen and maybe if you would have asked me immediately after the race I would have had some comments about it, what I think about how that happened. But for me, making points would have been difficult even without the crash.”
