Steiner on Mazepin's mistake-ridden F1 debut in Bahrain

Haas Formula 1 team principal Guenther Steiner has revealed Nikita Mazepin was left "pretty beat up" by his race-ending opening lap spin in the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Mazepin crashed out of his debut F1 race on the first lap, spinning out on the exit of Turn 2. 

The Russian rookie spun twice during practice and twice again during qualifying.

Despite his mistake-ridden weekend, Steiner confirmed the team is putting its arm around him as it looks to restore his confidence ahead of the next race at Imola.

“Yeah he was pretty beat up, Steiner said. “I just said to him to keep his head up and keep on going. For sure it’s not ideal what happened, but it happened. 

“He beats himself up pretty badly after but he’s ready to go again. We pushed him up again, but otherwise Mick did a good job. So at least we got half of what we wanted to achieve, 50 percent there.”

Mazepin came under fire during the off-season after a video emerged on his Instagram story that showed him groping a woman’s breast in the back of a car before it was deleted.

Steiner was asked if the criticism over the winter period had affected Mazepin ahead of the new season, he replied: “It’s difficult to answer because I didn’t really think about it that way. For sure it’s not good, and you always want to prove yourself right. 

“I don’t know how much it affects you, nobody, especially at a young age, can take that one out completely. He seemed to be in a good place when we started testing. He started in a pretty good place. I wouldn’t put it down purely to that but for sure it’s never an advantage to have a winter like he had.”

Steiner dismissed suggestions Mazepin was too eager to prove his doubters wrong in Bahrain.

“He was pushing, he wanted to push. His race on Sunday wasn’t long so he wasn’t over-motivated for a long time, because he only made it to Turn 3. For sure he overdid it, but as I said before, he doesn’t feel great about it, the opposite, he feels bad about it.”