Mick Schumacher ended the Austrian Grand Prix as the top Uralkali Haas F1 Team driver after finishing eighteenth at the Red Bull Ring, Nikita Mazepin finished nineteenth.
Schumacher’s race so nearly came to an early end, the Haas driver collided with Esteban Ocon on the exit of turn three on the opening lap and was lucky to escape damage free, whereas Ocon immediately retired.
Other than that it was a very quiet race for Schumacher who yet again out-performed his team-mate, the German moves on to the British Grand Prix open-minded.
“It was challenging – the softer tyres meant that we had to do a bit more managing in general. There was a part of the race where our pace was matching what Alfa Romeo and Williams were doing, so it just seems that we weren’t able to consistently do those lap times.
“We will have to analyse what we can do better but nonetheless I think we managed to learn something, especially at the beginning the race. We had a good first lap and we were able to be in the mix right away in T1 and T2, so lots learned on that side and now we’re going into Silverstone with an open mind.”
“It was a long afternoon” – Nikita Mazepin
Nikita Mazepin just like his team-mate had a very quiet grand prix, the only overtaking Mazepin saw was drivers lapping him, with Mazepin constantly having to move out of the way for the lead runners.
Mazepin went for a two-stop strategy which for the majority of drivers completing this option, quickly found out that it was the slower strategy. Nevertheless with Ocon retiring it was nineteenth place for Mazepin.
The Russian was also handed three penalty points to his licence plus a thirty-second time penalty, for failing to slow down during double-waved yellow flags. It summed up a long race for Mazepin.
“We went on alternative strategies – we went on two stops, which didn’t work. I think the drop off of the tyres wasn’t as big as we were expecting but it was the blue flags. You’re not able to keep up your pace because you have to stop more. It was a long afternoon.”
