10/01/2022
NEWS STORY
Reflecting on his debut season in F1, Nikita Mazepin has rated his overall performance worthy of 4 out of 5.
The Russian, who missed the final race of the season after testing positive for COVID, was out-qualified by his rookie teammate, Mick Schumacher at the other 20 events - the German having failed to take part in qualifying in Hungary after crashing in free practice - and only finished ahead of him on Sunday afternoon's on three occasions. Indeed, of those three occasions, in Monaco Schumacher was ordered to allow the Russian past, while the other two saw the German compromised by car damage.
While it is accepted that the Haas - essentially an updated 2019 car - was a dog, Mazepin had exactly the same equipment as his teammate, yet it was the German who usually made the most of it.
The bane of rivals for his refusal to yield even when being lapped for the umpteenth time, Mazepin was involved in numerous tangles over the course of the season, not least with his teammate, Silverstone and Monza being prime examples.
In fairness, things did seem to improve as the season progressed, both in terms of his visits to the stewards and general mistakes, though he never appeared to get the hang of track limits. Then again, who did?
Even so, it comes as something of a surprise to see the Russian rate his debut season as being worthy of 4 out of 5.
"I finished school four years ago and that's the last time I was receiving marks and in all honesty I don't really miss it so much," he says, according to Motorsport Week.
"I never think that you should get a five because five is excellence, and I don't know what excellence is," he admits. "Today it might be excellent, but tomorrow I realise I can do something more. So four is the maximum I can give myself.
"So I guess four for sticking through it because the times were really tough this year at certain points. Probably a three for adaptation, because that's hasn't been my strong point and I keep improving on it.
"I used a few different cars this year, so certainly when I used the cars that I have found difficult or heavy, it was the lower moments," he adds.
"Then I also made some mistakes like in the Bahrain race and some other events when I didn't feel like I performed well or I tried too hard and then ultimately lost my lap time like in Brazil, when I believe that we had a chance of out-qualifying Williams or going into Q2.
"That was definitely the low moments, but the high moments is many races. I had a good races in Silverstone, in Brazil and Mexico."
Next up, "Abu Dhabi was my finest hour," insists Michael Masi.