Nikita Mazepin is sinking to his “lowest point” of the season

Nikita Mazepin described qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix as his “lowest point of the season” and again fought with a car that “does not suit him”.

The Moscow-born rookie has found life in Formula 1 just as hard as predicted and in just one race so far he has been in front of a car that was not the other Haas driven by his teammate Mick Schumacher.

In the second race of the double race at the Red Bull Ring, Mazepin was almost as far behind Max Verstappen’s fastest Q1 time as a week earlier.

The problem was that he had fallen further behind, because Schumacher improved his time compared to Verstappen by almost four tenths of a second.

It was confirmed this week that Mazepin would get a new Haas chassis after the summer break – although the 22-year-old revealed that there are “conditions” attached to it – and it clearly cannot come fast enough for him.

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Nikita looks back on his qualifying on Saturday afternoon in Austria

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“Not very good, I think that is the lowest point so far this season,” said Mazepin about his qualifying.

“Since we figured out the last car problem, it doesn’t feel good and is very good where we were last night [after FP2].

“I try to keep the balance as good as possible, but the car I have doesn’t suit me and I’m not happy with the setup because it’s too nervous and I can keep it on track I haven’t the trust. Every corner feels very different, so I have to improve a bit. “

Mazepin admitted that his lack of confidence in the car means he won’t be able to advance at the same pace as his rivals during the sessions.

He added, “Two weekends in the same place are pretty frustrating for me because I think I’m pretty good at my ability to start pretty quickly and the more laps people do around me the more comfortable it becomes they. But I stay where I stay because I can’t drive this car any faster, because I don’t feel comfortable with it.

“For the second weekend in a row, I only went backwards. It shows that I started in a decent place and the more time other people have, the more they find and we don’t. “

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