Nikita Mazepin claims Haas teammate Mick Schumacher and his family need “protection” in Formula 1 after two incidents at the Dutch Grand Prix.
After qualifying, the Russian claimed he wouldn’t “tolerate” the “cheeky” German, who allegedly breached team orders by overtaking Mazepin on the last out lap of Q1.
Then in the race, Mazepin pushed Schumacher towards the pit wall as Mick attempted an overtake with DRS on the main straight, making light contact in the process.
Mick Schumacher trying to pass Nikita Mazepin #DutchGP pic.twitter.com/vMa5IjUj1z
— Pierre Henry (@pete_pedrinho10) September 5, 2021
That led Schumacher to later suggest there was no solution to the issues between himself and his teammate.
And following talks between himself, Mick and Haas chief Guenther Steiner to try and calm tensions at Monza, Mazepin was pretty full of himself.
“Good to know that I’m not in the bad books, so that’s positive,” he said via Formula1.com on how they went. “But I want to respect the privacy of the discussions, those were closed and I don’t think it would be comfortable for all parties if it was an open discussion, so I’ll keep it in that [way].”
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Nikita was then asked if any rules had been put into place for when the pair are fighting on track in the future.
“They have not, because we’ve deemed that I have not broken any sort of rules or violation within the FIA Sporting and racing regulations, and therefore I think we’re going to work as a team to try and fix that,” he replied.
“What the rules say in the book is that unless a significant portion of the car behind is side by side to you, you are not [obliged] to leave a car 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 [that] and I’m going to keep doing so… But perhaps sometimes you need to lift when you see that there is a bollard in front of you instead of damaging your car, but we’ll see,” he concluded in an obvious dig towards his teammate.
After the race weekend, Mick’s uncle Ralf Schumacher, himself a former F1 driver with Jordan, Williams and Toyota, slammed Mazepin, claiming his actions prove the Russian “has no place in F1”.
“There’s a very interesting phrase regarding opinions in the English language to do with that,” he said in response.
“To me, I obviously respect opinions because everyone’s got them, but it just seems like he’s obviously protecting his family.
“What can I say, if his family needs protection in Formula 1, then I’m more than happy to listen to those things.”