Steiner isn’t sure if Mazepin’s new F1 chassis will make a difference

The Russian complained that a heavier car than his teammate Mick Schumacher had made his work more difficult this season.

In a speech in Austria earlier this year, Mazepin said the extra weight made him feel like a “carrot that was about to be caught by a rabbit” as his teammate caught up with him.

Haas had promised to help Mazepin and has now confirmed that the youngster will get a new chassis from the race this weekend at Spa-Francorchamps.

But while Mazepin hopes it will help improve his performance on the track, Steiner isn’t sure if the difference will be that noticeable. To start with, he knows that it won’t improve chassis stiffness.

“Yes, he got the new one,” said Steiner when asked about the change.

“You can’t change the rigidity of a chassis without changing the homologation. It is a homologated chassis. So it will be very similar. “

Steiner said the move had no financial consequences and the ultimate benefit to Mazepin would not be seen until the cars hit the track.

“No, it has no financial implications,” he said. “But in terms of performance, I mean we’ll see if there is a difference.

“I don’t know if Nikita feels any different, it’s more because of him than me. But otherwise, as I said, a homologated chassis. We had two old ones because we obviously destroyed one last year [Romain Grosjean’s in Bahrain], we burned that. So we’ll see. “

Schumacher insists on a crooked seat

While Mazepin has a new chassis for Belgium, Schumacher pushes on in his old “crooked” seat.

The German admitted that this year his seating position wasn’t exactly straight, which Haas wanted to address.

Regarding the situation, Schumacher said: “We’re working on it, but I’m still driving with the old one.

“We’re trying to do a kind of hybrid of the seat we made at Silverstone and the one we have now. So a mixture of both. The one seat we made at Silverstone doesn’t fit into the car like that. There are a couple of points that just don’t work.

“Although it actually feels very comfortable and straight. We’ll have to wait a little longer and refine it and try to make it a hybrid. “

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