Mazepin to get new Haas F1 chassis after ‘heavier’ car complaints

The Russian rookie finished last and three laps down on race-winner Max Verstappen at the first of two races in Austria last weekend.

Mazepin expressed his frustration after the race, saying he felt like a “carrot that was about to be caught by a rabbit” and indicated that he was running at a disadvantage to his teammate Mick Schumacher.

“When you have a lot of laps, and long straights, and you have a very heavy car compared to the other car in our team it’s very difficult to stay ahead, so I’m not happy,” Mazepin said.

“But I’m just waiting for a new one to really have a chance because at the moment I’m just a sitting duck and I do my very best at the beginning and then I’m just a carrot to be caught and unfortunately I was caught, so that’s what it is.”

While Mazepin suggested he may have to wait for “six to seven races” before he gets a new chassis,  Haas team principal Guenther Steiner confirmed that it is likely to come at the Belgian Grand Prix after the summer break.

“I don’t want to go into the specific weight difference, it’s not very big,” Steiner said ahead of this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix.

“There is a small weight difference depending on the weight distribution, because sometimes you cannot get to the weight distribution if you don’t put a little bit overweight ballast in.

“Heavy is never good, but it’s not like 20kg heavy or not 10kg heavy, it is nothing like this.

“The chassis plan is to have it not in six or seven races, the chassis is planned to be with us after the summer break.”

Steiner insisted that losing crucial time during blue flags was a bigger problem for Mazepin in the last race.

“I think last race he got caught by the cars which were lapping him, and that makes you a sitting duck as once you let three cars by your tyres go where you don’t want them to be and you never get them back,” he explained.

“I don’t think that has anything to do with the chassis. That was done because again in the beginning we decided to give him an earlier pit stop to keep him out of the blue flags.

"We don’t know how the race will pan out, the main reason, so I wouldn’t put that one down to the weight difference.”