Haas will be taking utilising all learnings from the Styrian Grand Prix in order to help their rookie lineup of Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher improve upon their performance.
The team hopes this weekend’s race will allow for closer battles at the back of the field now that teams have collected all the vital data they need to improve on their performance as they return to the same track this morning for free practice.
Team Principal Guenther Steiner, continues to be optimistic about Schumacher and Mazpein’s performance even as they finish at the bottom of the timesheets time and time again.
Speaking ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix, the Italian boss said this doubleheader “gives them a chance that if on the first race we learn something, we can try something different for the second race.
“It’s more a test that if we learn something you can think about it a little bit longer than on a race weekend and that’s the opportunity for us”, Steiner said.
Nikita Mazepin said he’s delighted to be getting as much time behind the wheel as possible and sees the chance to race at the same venue twice as a vital step in gaining confidence.
“As a rookie in Formula 1, you often feel you’re not getting enough time behind the wheel, especially with free practices being shortened, so I think it will definitely put everybody much closer together with two weeks of racing on the same circuit and hopefully FP1, 2 and 3 will be a bit more straightforward.
“I’ve never done 90-minute FP1’s like other drivers have, however it doesn’t feel short to me having three free practices available when I’m used to one 45-minute free practice before qualifying.
“I think Formula 2 brings you up in a very strict manner so that you appreciate it in Formula 1.”
Meanwhile, Mick Schumacher says the consecutive races give him the chance to switch it up in terms of strategy to see what works best at this circuit.
“It gives me the opportunity to try something in the second weekend during FP1 and FP2 because normally we have to run some different programs and try some things, which we’ll do in the first weekend but then on the second weekend we’re able to try some other things.
“We’ll get a lot of information through that and hopefully set-up the car to the maximum of its potential.”
