Haas driver Nikita Mazepin has said he wakes up every morning with the goal of beating teammate Mick Schumacher.
Mazepin hasn’t had the brightest of starts to his F1 career. He has even managed to annoy other drivers on the grid. While his car isn’t the best, there is also the matter of him continuously getting bested by teammate Mick Schumacher. It’s surely getting to him as well.
Teammates in F1 have the same car. So naturally, F1 fans judge a driver by comparing him to his teammate. In Mazepin’s case, he always seems to be half a second slower per lap than Schumacher.
When asked about his intra-team battle during an interview with motorsports.com, the Russian driver got a little icy.
“I wake up every morning with that one goal (beating Schumacher) in my mind,” he asserted. “But I think in the very close future, it will be an intense battle, I can tell you that.”
Different approaches
This seems to be a continuation of Mazepin’s previous comments on his teammate. Earlier, he had suggested Schumacher was gaining an advantage through his use of simulators and old-spec cars. Accordingly, he was also in the hunt for tools to improve
“Obviously there are some tools that I don’t have available to me at this moment in time but I’m working on finding options to find solutions to have the same or more available to me,” Mazepin said.
“Driving isn’t just about things on track, you can visualise loads of things in your head, you have to be very fit, I train twice a day – with the odd rest day – so I do a lot, and that keeps me happy because I know I’m doing the most that I can. The people close to me see it.”
As F1 heads to Monaco, it is opportunity for Mazepin. We shall see whether he can finally upstage his teammate or not.
Read more: “Am I afraid of him? Yes”: Ocon says he is ‘200% more attentive’ with Mazepin around