Nikita Mazepin, Haas, Interlagos, 2021

Staff changes at Haas also prompted Mazepin’s tearful post-qualifying interview

2021 Sao Paulo Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by and

[raceweekendpromotion]Nikita Mazepin revealed his unexpectedly tearful response after qualifying for the São Paulo Grand Prix was not solely due to the errors on his lap which left him last in Q1 again.

The rookie described how staff turnover on his side of the Haas garage had taken a toll on him in recent races.

“It was mostly to do with a mistake on a qualifying lap,” Mazepin said on Saturday. “And I’m going through a pretty challenging period in the last few races, not only to do with the car balance, but also with some internal things going on in the team.”

“As you know, the team [is] shuffling around,” he explained. “People were coming and going in the last two races and I know that not everybody that is around me this year are planning to stay for next year. My team of engineering members hasn’t been the same and been changing ever since Turkey.”

“I have been surrounded ever since the start of this year by some very great, honest people,” Mazepin added. “And unfortunately my engineer left last week to another team, and he’s unfortunately not the only one. So that’s a challenge.”

Mazepin’s race engineer, Dominic Haines, recently returned from paternity leave, during which time Haas chief engineer Ayao Komatsu substituted for him. The driver said he was grateful for the commitment his team had shown and disappointed he hadn’t been able to repay them with a better result on Friday.

“To succeed in racing, I know what it takes, and it takes a special bond of people who – sorry for my English – work their arses off for you, and you do it, vice-versa.”

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner indicated the recent confirmation of a record, 23-race F1 calendar for 2022 had led some of the team’s staff to reconsider their futures in the sport.

“Every year you have got a little bit of change,” said Steiner. “On his car in particular this year this year a few people just don’t want to do the 23-race schedule next year.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

“His race engineer started a family and he’s leaving because he wants to do something [else], he’s staying in racing but not in Formula 1, he’s doing something different.

“A few people move around and obviously when you are at the back of the grid, it’s always more because the motivation is just not as high as when you’re winning. When you are winning and when you are having big results, you keep yourself going by having more results. So this is quite normal.”

Steiner played down the scale of the changes going on at the team. “There is not like a mass exodus, by no means. It’s a little bit of turnover talked in, again, into a big drama, which it isn’t. This is happening in racing, at the end of the year some people move on and some people move out of motorsport because there’s other things to do as well.”

Since Haas entered F1 five years ago, 60 of its original staff are still in place, said Steiner, while others have moved on. “There will be always people wanting to go racing. But maybe some people say, ‘I’ll stick around for a few years and then I do something different, I’ll see a bit of the world. I’ll enjoy a bit of Formula 1, and then I’ll do something different or go to a racing series where there is not so many races.’

“So. I think obviously there’s a lot of races, but somebody who wants to do it is still going to do it, that’s my opinion.”

Mazepin’s 19th Q1 elimination of the season on Friday “obviously got to him and he got emotional,” said Steiner. “It is one of the things which can happen. But was I surprised? Not really, I mean, I don’t have a big opinion on that one.”

The driver said he has “worked quite hard with different specialists to make sure that my emotions behave correctly when I’m in the car.

“But I think when you jump out the car and you only have four minutes or so until you speak to journalists who ask you questions that ultimately bring back those memories, and you know what could have been a different result, it just feels sad.”

He said he understands why some members of his team have decided to move on. “Good people in any industry, is something that you obviously want to hold on to,” Mazepin said. “Unfortunately, personal relationships isn’t something that, in this world, can make people stay.

“Sport is all I do in my life, but I’m only 22, and I guess if I was 10 years older and I had kids, I would make similar decisions.”

Don't miss anything new from RaceFans

Follow RaceFans on social media:

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2021 Sao Paulo Grand Prix

Browse all 2021 Sao Paulo Grand Prix articles

7 comments on “Staff changes at Haas also prompted Mazepin’s tearful post-qualifying interview”

  1. For the last four months, my workplace has implemented team rotation. In that time I’ve worked with pretty much everyone within the company. I don’t know who I’m working with, from one day to the next, but I deal with it.

    #JustSayin

  2. I’m sure every engineer and technical stuff dreams of working with this driver. What a waste of time and expertise.

  3. “To succeed in racing, I know what it takes, and it takes a special bond of people who – sorry for my English – work their arses off for you, and you do it, vice-versa.”

    Is this Mazepin apologising for not knowing English perfectly (although this is correct English), or was he doing a version of ‘excuse my French?’

    1. I think he meant ‘excuse my French’ just before swearing.

  4. The problem is with this 23 race thing, including 6 sprints, is that the top engineers won’t just be lost to other teams (which is fine) but to other engineering disciplines. If you ha e a young family, why would you really want to not see your children so much, and before the young kids come on here and reply that ‘well that’s just tough, they should leave’ attitude, one day you too might have a family and think slightly different. 23 races is too many, and we’re going to see more of this exodus going on in future with very good engineers going to other sectors.

    1. Whether a ‘young kid’ or an experienced adult – the fact remains that not all life choices are ideally suited to everyone.
      F1 is a demanding career branch, regardless of how many events there are – and by the very nature of it, only the most dedicated people will last very long or choose to stick at it.
      Ask any flight crew, truck driver, oil driller, armed/defence forces member, entertainment road crew worker, politician, or someone from a huge number of other career paths if their choices are any different. They all do it until it isn’t right for them anymore.
      Choices.

      And no – before you say it – they aren’t in F1 for our benefit. They chose their career path for their own benefit, and they’ll choose to leave it when it’s best for them.

  5. I expect we’ll see more of this as the calendar expands. Such demands are just about impossible for anyone trying to raise kids. The burnout will set in pretty quickly.

Comments are closed.