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Haas F1 team boss Gunther Steiner says he has no choice but to sack former Haas drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen and replace them with rookies Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin in 2021.
This year, the battered American team, still not scoring a point and bottoming out in the F1 Constructors’ Championship, hit the headlines for three main reasons: a noticeable lack of pace, the controversial Mazepin, and the intensification of disputes and next to the track between the Russian driver and teammate Schumacher.
After 2020, Haas surprised many F1 experts by ousting its experienced driver line-up from Grosjean and Magnussen. Now Steiner says he had no choice.
“I had to find ways to keep the team going (financially),” Steiner said in an article in the Danish tabloid Ekstra Bladet. “A lot of families depend on it. Sometimes you have to make difficult decisions even if you don’t like them. There was no anger or dissatisfaction – it was just a business decision.
“The alternative was that we wouldn’t be here. People have to understand that. So if we had kept Kevin, but Haas hadn’t survived, Kevin wouldn’t have had a car to drive anyway,” Steiner told the Danish newspaper.
He says the answer he found was to take the two rookies with solid financial support. Schumacher is a well-funded Ferrari driver, while Mazepin’s wealthy father Dmitry – Uralkali – is the team’s title sponsor.
Nikita Mazepin (left) and Mick Schumacher have found at least a temporary racing home at Haas F1.
Bryn Lennon – Formula 1Getty Images
Steiner admits that it is sometimes harder to work with rookie drivers, but thinks it would have been a bad experience for Magnussen and Grosjean to drive the uncompetitive car of 2021 anyway. Both drivers are now racing in the USA. Grosjean has three podiums, including two runner-ups, in the NTT IndyCar Series. Magnussen has reached the podium four times in eight races of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Series and started one race in IndyCar.
“We always knew that they were pretty good drivers,” said Steiner. “Otherwise we wouldn’t have had her here. They have advanced into completely new territories and each in their own direction.
“There’s no point in having people here who are dissatisfied. At least the new drivers can learn and gain experience about Formula One. If we give two experienced drivers a car like this, we could all potentially pull the team down. Even if you pay them. ” Therefore.
“I can feel it myself. If 2022 didn’t come, I wouldn’t want to do this season.”
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