‘Good to know I’m not in the bad books’ after Haas F1 talks - Mazepin

Following an incident in qualifying where the Haas duo impeded Sebastian Vettel, tensions flared again on the opening lap of the race.

Mazepin defended aggressively with a late move to the right of the track before the pit lane on the start-finish straight.

While it wasn’t clear at the time, it seems that in avoiding Mazepin, Schumacher hit a bollard, damaging his front wing.

Reflecting on the incident ahead of the Italian Grand Prix, Mazepin said: “It’s good to know that I am not in the bad books so that’s positive. I want to respect the privacy of those discussions, the doors were closed and I don’t think it would be comfortable for all parties if it was an open discussion so I will keep it in that.”

Mazepin confirmed that the rules of engagement will remain the same with his teammate, later explaining how he didn’t break the FIA regulations with regards to wheel-to-wheel combat at Zandvoort.

“They have not because we’ve deemed that I haven’t broken any rules or violations within the FIA sporting and racing regulations… we are going to work as a team to try and fix that but perhaps sometimes you need to lift when you see that there’s a bollard in front of you instead of damaging your car so we will see.

 “We are here as racing drivers and I think it’s incorrect when drivers put them above the stewards and driver advisors and say what they should have done because it’s not their position.

 “At the same time, I respect the rules a lot and what the rules say in the book is that unless there’s a significant portion of the car behind is side-by-side to you, you are not entitled to leave a car’s width and you’re entitled to make a move from the left to the right because you’re still in front and you can make your position safely. That’s been the case for many, many years and I respect so and I am going to keep doing so.”

Schumacher agreed with Mazepin that there won’t be any changes as to how he races his teammate but he wanted to keep any details of the meetings that have taken place to be kept internally.

“As of right now, I don’t think so. Hopefully, we will be able to race just as we do up to now. We’re discussing internally and I think everything has been said from each party. Hopefully, we will find the right solution and the right way out of it.”