Steiner foresees difficulties: "Gonna be a difficult start to the season"

Led by Guenther Steiner, the team that will bring two rookies on the track next year, Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher, looks ahead to the 2021 season. Steiner predicts difficulties similar to those we saw at the beginning of 2020, but he also foresees a difficult package for the developments and preparations within his own team. 

In a column on the-Race.com, Steiner looks ahead to 2021, stating that the newly announced lockdowns will once again throw a spanner in the works. He explains: “Now the focus is 2021. We are looking into the impact of the new lockdown regulations in the UK because when the car runs for the first time, that’s where it will be. But we will need people from Italy over to get the car running, so we need to understand what is happening with that. It’s six weeks away, but still, we need to be thinking about that.” 

"Maybe I’m being pessimistic", Steiner admits. "But I think we’ll have to deal with that for the first six months of the year. After that, I hope we can see the influence of the vaccine and things should be more solid and more predictable. But for the first six months, I think it will be a little bit like last year was.”

Bahrain well organised

Steiner does think that the race in Bahrain, which is second on the calendar, will be able to continue. This is in connection with the recent and successful organisation of two Grands Prix on the circuit. Steiner: “While it looks likely that Australia will be postponed, I think the Bahrain race will happen. They did a fantastic job at the end of last year and when we got there we felt very safe. They have very good control systems in place for the testing and everything is very well organised. What comes after, I have no idea. At the moment it’s very difficult for me to understand what’s happening in China, so I think there will be a difficult beginning of the season.”