01/08/2021
NEWS STORY
As Mick Schumacher crashes out in FP3, Haas team boss, Guenther Steiner admits that his accidents are "too frequent and too heavy".
As was the case in Monaco, the German's crash in final practice meant he was unable to take part in qualifying, even though his place on the back row of the grid was already pretty much reserved.
In France, having finally made it in to Q2, Schumacher crashed meaning he failed to progress, while his teammate's various incidents are the stuff of F1 legend.
That said, much to the dismay of his army of detractors on social media, having made plenty of mistakes in the early stages of the season he does appear to be keeping out of trouble in recent races, even if he somehow always manages at least one close encounter with his teammate.
For a team already cash-strapped, the incidents are not helping, and Guenther Steiner is clearly losing patience.
"Mick in the last five races had quite a few big ones," he told reporters. "If you have a spin or something like this, that happens. But these accidents are quite heavy. It's a lot of money, and for no good reason.
"So we have to work on it, to get better on that one," he added. "And, obviously, the budget is the budget, and you need to stick to it.
"You always have to have ideas how to get around it, when you have these accidents. At the moment, obviously we feel it, but we can still deal with it. But soon we will be in a position where it's like, yeh, we need to find new ways to overcome this. Because they're getting a little bit too frequent and too heavy.
"We make too many mistakes, that is the problem," said Steiner, "or I would say, in defence of Nikita, I shouldn't use the plural, because in the last races he behaved very well. He did very well. He didn't do any damage or anything. And Mick, just the last races, we had some accidents, which we need to get better at."
To add to the frustration, with the best will in the world, the Haas pair are never likely to start far from the back row, which is why Steiner believes they have to look at the risks they are taking compared to what is actually on the table.
"From our side, we just have to make plans how we spend our money," he admitted. "We know exactly what we are doing on parts and this, but to deal with the drivers, it's mainly just maybe sitting down and explain the big picture again, that sometimes you need to take risk, but you take risk if there is opportunity. If there is no opportunity, I never take risks personally, because there's nothing to be gained.
"At the moment, we know that there is not a lot to be gained, especially not in FP3, and we shouldn't take this risk in FP3."
Check out our Sunday gallery from the Hungaroring, here.