The Russian made his Haas team debut after finishing fifth in the 2020 Formula 2 season, his best result of the year in F1 with a 14th place in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
With the Haas proving to be the slowest car on the F1 field all season, Mazepin struggled at the bottom of the grid and only fought his teammate Mick Schumacher most of the time.
Mazepin admits that while he’s more proud of how he got through a difficult year, he could have adapted better to the demands of the sport.
“I finished school four years ago and that was the last time I got grades and I don’t miss it that much,” said Mazepin.
“I never think you should get a five because five is excellence [as in Russian school marks are from 2 to 5]and I don’t know what excellence is. Today it may be great, but tomorrow I will find that I can do a little more.
“So four is the maximum I can give myself. So I guess four that I made it through because times were really tough in some places this year.
“Probably a three for adjustment because that wasn’t my forte and I keep improving.”
Mick Schumacher, Haas F1, Nikita Mazepin, Haas F1
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Mazepin’s rookie season featured several mistakes over the year, including a crash early on in the Bahrain GP, which he admits was one of the campaign’s low points.
“I’ve driven a few different cars this year, so if I used the cars that I found difficult or heavy, it was the lower moments,” he said, referring to being in several races this year had to use a heavier chassis.
“Then I made some mistakes too, like in the Bahrain race and some other events when I felt I wasn’t performing well or tried too hard and then ended up losing my lap time, like in Brazil where I was believe we had a chance. ” Outqualify Williams or go into Q2.
“Those were definitely the low moments, but the high moments are … a lot of races. I had a good race at Silverstone, in Brazil and Mexico.”
