Mick Schumacher triggered the first red flag of the Jeddah race, spinning and crashing violently into the barriers of Turn 22 early in the race.
After the restart, Nikita Mazepin found himself helpless in hitting the rear of George Russell’s Williams, which moved to avoid Sergio Perez’s Red Bull, which spun after a collision with Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari.
Mazepin’s chassis was damaged, so a spare will have to be used in Abu Dhabi. Among other things, the Russian had already been forced to replace another one recently, after he was damaged on a curb in Qatar.
Steiner explained that the team has enough spare parts to face the final weekend of the season, but that they cannot afford another crash of this magnitude.
“It’s better that this damage has come now than five races ago,” Steiner told Motorsport.com. “We have a race to do and enough spare parts to rebuild the cars, but we don’t have enough if there are more accidents in Abu Dhabi.”
“We still have some, we are not completely without. But there is not much margin, because we did not expect to destroy two cars in the penultimate race. This is never good.”
When asked to quantify the damage, he added: “Mick’s gearbox, bottom, bellies broke, but the frame is safe. Nikita’s is gone.”
“It was the wheels when they came back, they smashed it on the sides like a drum. The full front suspension is gone too. In the rear his car is not bad, but the front is completely destroyed.”
“As I said, we are fine with the spare parts, we knew we were fine, but we are using everything we have available. If we have an accident in Abu Dhabi in FP1, it will be a problem, because there are only two days left. of time. But otherwise we are fine “.
“The good thing is that we only have one race to do, because if there were still three, we would need to produce parts. Now it is not possible, because we do not have the time anyway: in three days you cannot produce these parts. we only have enough to make it to the end. It means we won’t have an inventory to do at the end of the year! “
The Medical car attends the crash of Nikita Mazepin, Haas VF-21, and Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB16B
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Mazepin praised the raising of safety standards in F1 after coming out unscathed from a very heavy impact.
“I’m fine,” said the Russian after the race. “I took a hit, especially on the left side of my body, and I’m sure I’ll wake up in pain tomorrow.”
“I would say that I am very lucky to be racing in this era, because the work Jean Todt did with the FIA allowed me to come out unscathed today. And I’m not sure it would have gone anyway 15 years ago.”
“From what I saw, Charles had no room to go and made Sergio turn. That point is so narrow that when Sergio turned he took up about 85% of the circuit. So George was forced to lift his foot or to brake”.
“I was wrestling with Stroll and we were both at full speed, so there wasn’t enough room to stop, because the speeds were over 200km / h and it was impossible to avoid George’s rear,” he concluded.
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