Mazepin angry with himself after shortest F1 debut in nineteen years

Nikita Mazepin was notorious before he had even ridden a metre in Formula 1 and his debut in Bahrain didn't make it much better. His debut race lasted only two corners.

Angry with himself

Mazepin accelerated too much at turn two, lost control of his car and drove into the crash barrier. Afterwards, the Russian laid the blame entirely on himself. "It was very simple, I made a mistake, the tyres were cold and I hit the kerbs. I gave too much gas and spun, totally my fault," Motorsportweek.com quoted.

"I am very angry with myself and very sorry for the team," Mazepin continued. "They deserve to do much better than that." Mazepin further sees it mostly as a learning opportunity. "There are always positive things to take away, my days at the track are very long, they include a lot of things. The learning experience is there. You learn a lot through the days. You have your ups and downs, but today was one of the biggest downs. That's the way life is."

Shortest F1 debut in years

Mazepin's failure was the shortest Formula One debut in nineteen years. It was the first time since Allan McNish and Felipe Massa crashed out at the 2002 Australian Grand Prix that a rookie had crashed out on the first lap. At the time, Massa and McNish were involved in the infamous chain collision.