Nikita Mazepin declared Sunday “one of my worst days in my life” after crashing out on the opening lap of the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Running last, the Haas driver simply lost control of his car coming out of Turn 2 and slid into the barrier on the left-hand side ending his Formula 1 debut very prematurely.
And while the turbulent air from the cars in front likely didn’t help, Mazepin conceded there was no-one to blame but himself.
“It was very simple, I made a mistake,” he said via The Race. “The tyres were cold, I got on the kerb, took too much throttle and spun. Totally my mistake.
“I’m very sorry to the team because they deserve to do much better than that, and I’m very angry with myself.
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“It’s one of those really bad days but I’m a human, unfortunately I make mistakes.
“Right now, standing here, other than having one of my worst days of my life probably, [there’s] not much else I can say.”
Heading into the weekend, Haas boss Guenther Steiner declared reaching the chequered flag as the only goal for his two rookies, something Mick Schumacher managed in 16th.
As for Mazepin…
“Nikita, obviously, we all saw had a spin on the first lap which compromised his race,” he said.
“He doesn’t feel great about it, but we put it down as learning. He will get back at it again at the next race weekend, for sure he’s learned from this weekend.”
In total, Mazepin was seen spinning at least six times across his first F1 race weekend, so certainly a long way to go to silence that doubters.