Haas team principal Guenther Steiner has issued a firm warning to the two Haas drivers ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix.
Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin face their most difficult race yet. Three days on the narrow streets of Monte Carlo and a tough 78-lap race will pose a significant challenge for the Haas duo.
At Monaco, the smallest mistake can be race-ending. The two drivers have already committed numerous blunders between them, and won’t be looking forward to another one. Schumacher hit the wall at Imola, while Mazepin has tons of incidents to his name, including a massive spin three corners into his race at Bahrain.
Steiner has repeatedly coached the drivers about avoiding mistakes, in a bid to make the rookies more competitive. He has said that Monaco will accelerate their education more rapidly than other locations.
In the Haas preview article, Steiner was asked what the specific briefing for the drivers would be.
“Stay out of the walls and off the barriers. That’s what we will let them know,” he said. “Once you are in the barriers in Monaco, your session is lost. You can’t get the car back and it’s normally pretty damaged anyway.”
“The challenge is big. It’s a very tight circuit, obviously a street circuit, and you’ve got lots of people watching – everything you don’t want on a race like this. On the other side, you do want it though, that’s why we are doing it.
“There should be little pressure on the drivers there as we know our performance. They should be looking at the race just to gain experience so that when they return with a better car, they will have learned how to deal with Monaco – which is obviously a very special race in the Formula 1 calendar,” he explained.
Revival of fortunes?
Haas has had a shambolic start to the season. Only once in four races has their car finished ahead of a rival’s. This was when Schumacher finished ahead of Nicholas Latifi at Portugal. Other than that, both drivers could do a lot better. However, their performance is encouraging for Steiner.
“At the moment we are very happy with how they are getting along with the team,” the Italian said.
“You can always get better, but we are at a very good point and the relationships with the people they work with directly are improving – they have started off on a good foot and it’s just a work in progress.
“There are a lot of people working in a Formula 1 team and the drivers need to get to know them better, especially the people that work directly with them. Up to now though, it’s been very positive progress.”
Read more: “Not an easy task to find what he likes”: Guenther Steiner has his hands tied for Nikita Mazepin