'Formula One and an elephant are similar' says Mazepin

In a Haas that couldn't compete for points Nikita Mazepin had a season without many highlights. The rookie was always at the back of the field, and was often the slowest of all. For the average athlete it would have been a year to get discouraged, but the Russian has insisted he's learnt a lot, and used a strange analogy to do so.

Positively minded

Instead of sitting by and drowning in self-pity, Mazepin is aware of how to find the positives in a difficult debut year. Yes, the mediocre results were sometimes difficult to deal with, but the progress he made as a driver was more important Mazepin told Motorsportweek. 

The most important lesson of the year? "That you have to eat an elephant bite by bite," says Mazepin. "And Formula 1 and an elephant are similar." Of course, the Russian means that in Formula 1 you have to take things one step at a time. All hope is focused on the coming year when Haas will hope to come out with a much more competitive car. Not surprisingly, a year was spent working on that, which meant there were hardly any updates for the 2021 car.

Putting it to good use

Mazepin thinks the hard lessons will serve him and Haas well in 2022. With a better balanced and more predictable car, the Russian expects to compete more easily in the midfield "because it's hard to go home satisfied with P19."