Russian F1 rookie Nikita Mazepin has suggested that his team-mate, Mick Schumacher, is receiving favourable treatment from Haas.
The pair had yet another incident in qualifying for the 2021 Mexican Grand Prix on Saturday, with Mazepin asking if he could overtake his team-mate ahead of their flying lap as he believed the German was driving too slowly.
READ: ‘I Can Only Get Mad At Myself’: Leclerc Furious After Mexican GP Qualifying
Speaking after qualifying, Mazepin said “it seems like the rules are a bit different on the different sides of the garage.”
Explaining what happened, Mazepin told The Race that he believes Haas should have allowed him to overtake Schumacher, as they allowed the German to overtake him at Zandvoort earlier this year.
“We had a lengthy red flag, which made us have an opportunity to go down in the fast lane and wait there so that we keep our track position,” said Mazepin.
“We’ve gone down there with about two-and-a-half minutes ago. That means that you’re sitting there without the blankets, where you lose heat that you have put into these tyres.
“When we get out there, I knew that those cars that were behind me sitting [in the pits] will need to be pushing to get that temperature into their tyres and I also need to get the same tyre temperature in.
“When I saw my team-mate very early in the lap, Turn 4, not doing the same, I thought that maybe the temperatures that he wants to start with are lower and therefore because we’re so early in the lap, like he said in the previous event in the Netherlands, we could have changed positions.
“And [there] he was given a green light, where I’ve been given a red light. So not a big deal there,” he added.
Meanwhile, Schumacher said Mazepin has no “real reason” to be upset after qualifying for the Mexican GP:
“From our side, everything happened as normal and as planned.
“Obviously, the Williams were there, but they were doing a faster out-lap than we were planning on. We just did our normal out-lap, really.”
Asked to comment on Mazepin’s frustration with the team not allowing him to overtake him, Schumacher said:
“I think that the team set out clear instructions and I think those instructions were held in from both sides, from my side.
“So I think there’s no real reason to be upset in any way.”
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