05/04/2021
NEWS STORY
Mick Schumacher has revealed that he was first "warned" about Nikita Mazepin's aggressive approach to racing while they were both competing in karts.
Other than the team's admission that it has already all but thrown in the towel on the 2021 season, the fact is that Haas is rapidly becoming a bit of a pantomime outfit.
Ignoring team boss, Guenther Steiner's resemblance to the perfect pantomime villain, we have drivers who before a wheel had turned were proving somewhat divisive for fans.
In the blue corner we have golden boy, Mick Schumacher, while in the red corner we have bad boy Nikita Mazepin.
Don't believe us... just check Twitter and type in the Russian's name.
Coming into the sport with a certain reputation, Schumacher has admitted that even when he was karting he was warned about Mazepin's 'take no prisoners' approach to his racing.
"We've known each other since 2013 where we've been team-mates at Tony Kart," said the German.
"Just before that I kind of remember we had one race together where you were racing with Zanardi in La Conca," he added. "That was the first time I noticed you, because actually there was... I don't know, one of my team-mates said I had to be careful when I'm racing with you because... like, combat wise, he was quite aggressive!
"Then, obviously, in 2014 we had another year where he was in KF2, I was in KF3 that year. And after that I think we kind of always had some races together, some championships together, so we've always seen each other.
"I guess the respect is there," he added. "Obviously, we are now going to be really working closely together, where it's only us two, so it's going to be interesting to see how it goes this year."
"I have enormous respect for him as a racing driver," Mazepin responded, when asked about his teammate. "I also like him a lot as a human being.
"There are different individuals in motorsport," he continued, "and some are pretty difficult to be around with. But Mick is the complete opposite, so I feel fortunate that he's obviously my team-mate.
"I couldn't choose it, but it's nice to have a nice guy around you. And also I think it's a very good possibility for a team because when you don't have any negativity and you're just both pushing forward, it can help us being much higher upwards than we could have been on our own."
Hmmm. Let's come back to this when we get to Abu Dhabi.