While Schumacher took a positive step forward at the last Portuguese Grand Prix, late overtaking Williams driver Nicholas Latifi to finish 17th, Mazepin finished last for the second straight year after crashing on the first lap of his debut in Bahrain.
The Russian’s pre-season struggles seem to continue at the Spanish Grand Prix this weekend. Mazepin spun on Friday in opening practice and ended up almost 0.4 seconds behind Schumacher in FP2 in both sessions.
The American team has decided against developing its F1 car in 2021 to focus on 2022, and Steiner believes Mazepin’s struggles were exacerbated by several “flaws” in the VF-21 that prevented it from balancing find with whom he is satisfied.
“I think Mick can maybe adapt more or faster to what the car is doing,” said Steiner. “I mean, we all know the car isn’t very good and we’ve always said that I wish I had one of their cars, as much as my colleagues here have problems.
“In the end I think [with] Nikita, we just have to try to get him a better balance too. So the shortcomings of the car to overcome them a little, the car is very unstable when turning and I think Mick may be better able to do that and Nikita struggles a bit more because he wants the rear just to be confident it will sticks.
“So, it’s one of the things we have to try to get Nikita to a better place, so that he feels safer – because if he doesn’t trust his car, it’s very difficult to drive it because, you know the speeds you go are not easy so that’s what you try to do. “
On the subject of matching items
Steiner admitted that Haas’ current focus is mostly on helping Mazepin overcome his troubles and bring him up to speed with Schumacher, who has so far outperformed his previous F2 rival.
“We’ll definitely look at Mick to see why he’s getting more out of it and try to get Nikita up to speed,” he explained. “So the focus is more on Nikita to bring him up to date than on Mick.
“We just have to understand why he gets more out of the car and see how the car is built. It’s too early to build a leadership because the next thing someone is going to say is Mick is number one and it’s not. It’s an equal status.
On the subject of matching items
“Both have the same car and we will keep that. We’re only on the fourth race weekend, not even the fourth, so I think it’s too early to jump to all of these conclusions, but Mick is sure to be ahead in the moment. But I’m pretty sure we can get Nikita there too. “
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