Mazepin was given a five-second time penalty for obstructing then-race director Perez as he approached him, with the pair nearly colliding at Turn 3.
The Russian had just emerged from the pits in front of Perez and had not seen the Red Bull driver close behind him. Perez had to dodge after Mazepin turned to face him, and the Mexican feared that he actually hit the Haas driver and broke his front wing.
After the race, Mazepin went to Perez to apologize for what happened, but Haas team principal Gunther Steiner says his outfit must take responsibility in situations like this.
“I think his blue flag light came on very late and he was already after Turn 2 when the light came on,” said Steiner. “So of course we have to improve communication when you come out of the box and someone comes.”
Also read:
Steiner knew that Mazepin had not deliberately tried to make life difficult for Perez and was relieved that the five-second penalty imposed meant little to the Russian in the end.
“I think the thing wasn’t intentional and nothing bad happened in the end,” he said. “You know it never looks good, but the five seconds that I think didn’t make much of a difference.
“In the end, I think Checo accepted this one, you know. He [Nikita] apologized to him. He said, “Hey, it was really a mistake, there was no intention of anything.” So these things happen. “
F1 race director Michael Masi said the penalty imposed on Mazepin was only for almost causing the collision with Perez, even though he had just been shown the blue flags.
“Nikita’s penalty was not so much ignoring the number of blue flags as ignoring the incident shown on the show with Sergio at Turn 3 and the near-collision caused by the blue flags,” he explained.
“It wasn’t really intended for a series of panels, but rather for not effectively getting out of the way at the earliest opportunity and, as a result, nearly causing an incident.”
The post Haas F1 improves communication after Mazepin / Perez near miss first appeared on monter-une-startup.
