Formula 1

Steiner Bemused by Bahrain Scrutineers for Calling Both Haas Drivers to Weighbridge During Qualifying

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Credit: Andy Hone / LAT Images

Guenther Steiner was left bemused during Qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday evening after seeing both Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin called to the weighbridge during Q1.

The Uralkali Haas F1 Team saw Schumacher and Mazepin qualify on the back row of the grid at the Bahrain International Circuit, but their session was not aided by the FIA calling both drivers onto the weighbridge, costing them valuable track time.

“We were pretty happy with our performance earlier in FP3,” said Steiner, the Team Principal at Haas.  “We got everything done that we wanted to do – it was difficult circumstances with the heat, but the guys did a good job.

“Then in qualifying, maybe not everybody saw, but we had both cars stopped on the FIA weighbridge. We wanted to do three runs each with both cars, but the time gets very short to do them – we couldn’t do all that.”

The time lost to the weighbridge meant the team were pressed for time to get all their runs in, which perhaps led to Mazepin spinning at turn one on his final run after an issue with his brake-by-wire system that caused his rear brakes to lock.

Steiner says both drivers have now experienced a Formula 1 Qualifying session for the first time and being stopped on the weighbridge, so both can tick those items off their to-do lists.

“With Nikita, with rushing, something went wrong with his brake-by-wire setting,” said Steiner.  “That’s when on his third attempt he spun – his rear brakes locked up. All-in-all the result doesn’t look great, but the guys now have their first qualifying under their belt.

“They experienced about all the issues you can have in qualifying – not least both of them getting stopped on the weighbridge, that was a new one for us. At least they know how do to that now.”

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