“These cars are so much more complicated to drive”– Nikita Mazepin talks about his struggles while transitioning into Formula 1 this year.
Nikita Mazepin has not been the brightest of rookies after making his debut for Haas this year; the Russian race driver has appeared to struggle with the car and earn the name of ‘MazeSpin’- a mocking term for his constant spinning on the track n his initial F1 races.
.@HaasF1Team boss Guenther Steiner presented @nikita_mazepin with his own “Maze-spin” spinning top 😂👏#SkyF1 #StyrianGP 🇦🇹 pic.twitter.com/beLuhAXPTd
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) June 27, 2021
The rookie Haas driver talks about his challenges in an F1 car, where he explained that these cars are technically more complicated and vulnerable to wind.
“These cars are so much more complicated to drive and they are so much easier to make mistakes with,” Mazepin told RacingNews365.comand other select members of the press.
“Not only because the speeds are higher but they are also much easier to be caught out by wind and [a] lack of grip sometimes when you just overheat tyres.”
“These cars are unforgiving even though people see the walls are very far. At the speeds that we’re travelling, if you lose control, they come towards you very quickly.”
“There isn’t a certain thing, there’s no guarantee that I will not make a mistake anytime soon. We operate at the fastest speed that these cars can take and sometimes mistakes happen. Especially in such early days everyone can be sometimes making mistakes and that’s normal.”
Rear-instability has lessened over the races
Mazepin is yet to gain a point in F1, where his best result came in Azerbaijan with a P14. The Russian driver minimalized his errors over the season’s progression but has largely struggled with the rear instability, which he claims has improved recently.
“The way you need to go fast in these cars is you need to have the confidence in them,” said Mazepin. “If you don’t have the confidence, you could put a fantastic lap in but you wouldn’t be able to do that lap in with one minute to go in Q3.”
“The fundamental thing you need to have is you need to be able to drive the car consistently and trust that the car will take the load that you put in it. At the beginning of this year, I didn’t feel that this car was taking that load and it wasn’t giving me the confidence I needed.”
“But through the hard work and the engineers believing me and listening they are seeing what I am requesting is making sense and they are doing a fantastic job to give me the car that I’m asking for.”
