The Russian had a challenging rookie season last year as he struggled with an uncompetitive car and endured his fair share of frustrating moments as teammate of Mick Schumacher.
However, Mazepin is determined to figure out how to improve and believes that working harder on his relationship with more team members could pay off.
Speaking exclusively to Autosport, Mazepin said: “There are a few key areas that you need to get done.
“It’s your motivation because we’re human and we obviously lack motivation like everyone else at times. We sometimes wake up in a bad mood and don’t have the energy like other people, but we still need to get out there and perform. I would say that was very good.
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“Teamwork and learning how to act correctly in a team comes second. I think that’s something I need to improve because I’m very comfortable working with three, four or five people.
“But when it’s in the hundreds, I think sometimes I’m missing the time I need and spending as much personal time with people as I need to.” So that’s something I have to do.”
Mazepin says working in an F1 organization with hundreds of employees requires a completely different approach than he found things in the junior categories, where teams are much smaller.
Nikita Mazepin, Haas F1, runs the track
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
“When the team is small, of course you talk about things,” he said.
“But when the team is that big, you have to come up with ideas of how to bring everyone together on another continent. When there are 40 people in the team, that’s a different matter.”
Mazepin felt that finding the sweet spot was crucial to both maintain levels of motivation and engage with the team in the right way.
“So you bring those two things together and how do you get that into a very good autobalance?” he added.
“How do you bring that into play with luck on your side when you’re racing?
“Because the car is very difficult to drive and [it] requires a particularly good balance or extra work to find that good balance, that’s also something I need to improve on.
“That’s why I’ve done really well at races like Interlagos, Mexico and those events.”
