Q2 spot shows team “ready to score” with a better car

After Haas decided not to develop their 2021 car in order to fully focus on F1’s new technical regulations in 2022, Haas has been battling for pace this season, with Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin usually on the back row of the grid languish.

On Saturday, a Haas car made it into Q2 in qualifying for the first time this season, thanks to Mick Schumacher’s 14th place in Q1.

Aside from this obvious breakthrough and Schumacher’s performance himself, team boss Steiner pointed out that his racing team provided the perfect strategy and execution to get there, giving him the confidence that his crew will be ready to score when they enter better car gets.

“Yes, that was my personal greatest satisfaction to see how the team did,” Steiner replied when asked how comforting it was to see Haas’ race weekend management.

“We’re ready for next year, you know. We’re fine. Yes, we’ll make mistakes too, but there was a chance and it worked that way [if] they have been working together for three or five years.

“Mick was very calm, his race engineer did a great job and has always remained calm. Especially with Ayao [Komatsu] as a substitute for Nikita. work [Mazepin’s] Race engineer, so there wasn’t a chief race engineer there.

“And they all did a good job, everyone did what they had to do, the mechanics.”

“That made me happy because now we’re ready. If we get a better car, the racing team will be ready to score some points.”

Nikita Mazepin, Haas VF-21, Mick Schumacher, Haas VF-21

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

The contact with Fernando Alonso in the rain race on Sunday let Schumacher lose any hope of points in the first lap and was only 19th ahead of teammate Mazepin.

But Steiner argued that the Q2 spot was a rare reward for his crew, having steadily slipped into the back of the grid for the past three years.

“To be honest, I’m really happy for the team because they all work hard to get the most out of it all the time,” he said.

“I see what they do and in the end there is no result and you know I almost feel bad about it, but I am very happy for them because I know how much effort they put in.

“Maybe three years ago we were unhappy not to go into Q3, now we’re happy to get out of Q1. It’s a different matter, but the guys, just a little bit of success will get you going.

“Everything was done well and it shows that you just have to go ahead and work hard and things will come to us.”