Mick Schumacher enjoyed a good race at the inaugural Qatar Grand Prix, finishing in a respectable sixteenth place ahead of both Williams Racing cars. Team-mate Nikita Mazepin finished eighteenth after an unfortunate weekend.
Schumacher had a great weekend at the Losail International Circuit, with the Uralkali Haas F1 Team car looking the most competitive it has been all season. The German made a great start on his soft tyres after starting nineteenth, and managed to pull-off a risky one-stop strategy. Others who tried the strategy suffered from front-left punctures, including both Williams drivers.
Schumacher was happy with his performance after the race and is amazed by all the hard work being done by his team.
“It was good, and we can be happy with what we achieved today. We made the strategy that we chose and committed to work. The start was pretty decent, we got Latifi at the beginning. The performance of the car was there, and we were right in the window. We were very close to the Alfas which is what we were expecting but on the other hand, not from the beginning of the year.
“It’s down to our teamwork committing to understanding the car as well as we do and having to work with what we have. We’re still now finding new things, finding new ways of improving.”
“Our big goal was to do laps and maximise” – Nikita Mazepin
Nikita Mazepin had a somewhat unfair weekend, the Russian driver entered the race having barely managed twenty laps of the circuit. The rookie sat out the vast majority of Free Practice across the three sessions due to technical problems with his car.
In hindsight of this, Mazepin did well during the race to bring the car home after gathering lots of data. Mazepin recognised that it was a difficult weekend and that he hopes for better in Saudi Arabia.
“We expected the tyres to do one thing and we went medium to soft, and it felt like the balance had a lot of understeer at the end of the first stint. I did decent laps towards the end of the last. I certainly didn’t drive like they were race tyres, I drove like they were qualifying tyres, learning the track with every lap out there. It was a very hot race. Our big goal was to do laps and maximise. Not the easiest one out there but another new track in the mix next time.”
