“Does he want to kill us” fumes Schumacher after beating Mazepin by 0.07s

2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

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Mick Schumacher was furious with team mate Nikita Mazepin as the pair came close to colliding at 300kph as they sprinted towards the finishing line.

Mazepin admitted he was frustrated at being beaten to 12th place by his team mate. The pair crossed the line separated by just seven-hundredths of a second.

Schumacher’s onboard camera showed Mazepin weaved towards him as his team mate drew alongside as they accelerated from turn 20 towards the finishing line. Schumacher gesticulated angrily at Mazepin, then complained on his radio after crossing the finishing line.

“What the fuck was that, honestly?” exclaimed Schumacher on the radio. “Seriously, does he want to kill us?”

“Understood Mick, chequered flag,” his race engineer answered.

Mazepin said he was disappointed to lose the position as he didn’t have sufficient boost from his battery to outrun Schumacher to the line.

“The main thing was just I’m a little bit upset about losing my position to my team mate on the main straight,” he said. “I ran out of battery there so I was a bit of a sitting passenger. But it is what it is.”

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The pair finished 12th and 13th, their best results of the season so far, which lifted Haas to ninth in the championship ahead of Williams.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull, Baku City Circuit, 2021
Poll: Rate the Race – 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

“I think [it’s] a nice number for the team, but obviously some unexpected situations has happened with the other drivers which enabled us to get that position. But overall, it’s quite positive.”

Having spent much of the race behind Schumacher, Mazepin passed him after the restart with two laps remaining. He revealed he had to cope with a brake problem during the race, during which he went off at one point.

“The race itself was not bad,” he said. “Very annoying because certain things made us fall backwards.

“The pace was there but we were experimenting with something because I had to manage the brakes from the beginning because they were overheating. I had to change my brake bias and because of the change I then was very prone to locking and I almost drove into a wall which lost me a lot of time. But so many times the race was stopped and then come to life again.”

Update: FIA to look into the incident; Haas team principal Steiner says it was a “misunderstanding”

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2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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29 comments on ““Does he want to kill us” fumes Schumacher after beating Mazepin by 0.07s”

  1. The irony of Mick being subjected to a move his father made famous is not lost on me.

    1. And later Hakkinen pulled a brilliant overtake at that race. Ricardo Zonta was that famous spectator too.

    2. BUMBLING BORIS
      7th June 2021, 15:27

      I absolutely agree. His father would’ve and did take people out of races. Not sure he would’ve bothered when no points were on offer though. He seemed to get away with it too.

  2. What onboard? Nothing was shown on the world feed.

    1. @jerejj But then there’s F1 TV.

  3. Mazepin says he was frustrated at losing the position to his teammate? Seeing as Mazepin was something like 40 seconds behind his teammate during the race, if he finished ahead of Mick was he really going to pat himself on the back and say job well done? The frustration with his performance should have come long before then.

    1. well he beat Lewis so not to bad is it ;)

    2. Regardless @velocityboy (although he really was lucky to finish as close behind, as you mention), the idea that being frustrated at being passed by his teammate would somehow alleviate his dangerous swerve towards Mick should get him docked some penalty points in its own right!

  4. Adam (@rocketpanda)
    6th June 2021, 17:57

    I saw the clip of that move Schumacher is so angry about and he’s right, it was a late jab to the side by Mazepin and if Schumacher had been ever so slightly later in moving they’d have collided. Mazepin’s not just unimpressive and unreliably slow he is as dangerous as people suspected he’d be.

    1. Yup, I had a look at it on the onboard and what on earth was Mazepin thinking there @rocketpanda. If being frustrated brings him to do that, then he doesn’t belong behind any steering wheel.

  5. Miltiadis (@miltosgreekfan)
    6th June 2021, 18:46

    https://youtu.be/x1TT6abmfmE

    I have a YouTube channel where i post some videos (If FOM allows it) and in the link above you can see why Mick was rightfully annoyed…

    1. @miltosgreekfan thanks for that. Yeah it’s a bit of a gamer move, wait to see which direction they go and then a quick flick in that direction to get them to lift (Max used to do it a little lot more subtly in real life, but not much more subtly).

      If it was for first place or even a points paying position we’d be all over it how dangerous it is, but to do it for 12th place in a cash strapped team seems a bit unnecessary.

      1. Miltiadis (@miltosgreekfan)
        6th June 2021, 19:44

        Yeah,it was a pretty unnecessary move and Mick was rightfully angry.
        On the other hand , Mazepin sounded really disappointed in losing the spot, despite the fact that he was nowhere pace wise before the red flag…

  6. Mazepin should have been more frustrated about being like 40 seconds off Mick before the interruption…
    He didn’t deserve that place anyway, pretty dangerous move.

  7. Lol, what can Steiner do now?

    This Mazepin is a ‘real ace’. Obviouslly there was potential for a few million worth of damage, but even worse he shows tendencies of danger and slowness, not a good combo.

  8. Probably an unpopular opinion, but I actually don’t think Mazepin intended to pull such a dangerous move. MSC was drifting very slowly to the right and may not have been in Mazepin’s mirror at the moment Mazepin jinked to the right. Could be, and probably am wrong though

  9. Cristiano Ferreira
    7th June 2021, 1:58

    If anything Mazepin shows that the hate Stroll received in his first years were very harsh and undeserving.

    Not that Stroll is spectacular but he is a safer pair of hands since his debut.

  10. Wow, it was like actual racing for… a moment.

  11. Schumacher was probably the only driver on the grid that hadn’t insulted Mazepin as yet… but that item in the checklist seems to be ticked off as well.

    Nikita doesn’t seem to have the racing etiquette, talent or character traits expected of an F1 driver, so I’m not surprised to see him get constantly ridiculed and insulted by the rest of the F1 grid. His off-track behaviour seems even more despicable, which makes him an absolutely unlikeable character. I wonder how much longer Nikita will continue in F1 after feeling nothing but disrespect from his peers and the fans.

    1. Does he have any fans? I for one don’t think he should have ever go that seat and drive, but obviously ‘money talks’

  12. Oh look, another anti-Mazepin article on this site… How surprising.

    Nothing there that 100 other drivers haven’t done.
    Verstappen was famous for it for a while.

    1. Ilott In! You can’t change my mind about Mazepin, can you?

      1. Mazepin out = Haas out.
        They’re on the grid because of Mazepin money.

        1. You can’t change my opinion. Too bad eh?
          What about only having Dmitry involved? Would that solve this problem?

  13. *Russian swearing intensifies*

  14. Question to those harshly criticizing Mazepin for the late defensive move. What is your opinion on the Ricciardo-Verstappen collision back in 2018 at the same circuit?

    C. Horner never criticized Verstappen for the late and dangerous move, and no one was penalized.

    1. The people who blamed Max could finally rest after 3 years…

  15. And here’s one more thing I want to say to Haas!: “Mazepin is noob, Dmitry Mazepin is noob, Steiner is noob, Gene Haas is noob, Mick still can’t get Gold Nova, Haas are the biggest noobs.”

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