Nikita Mazepin believes the complexity of the 2021 Formula 1 cars has made life difficult for himself and fellow rookies Mick Schumacher and Yuki Tsunoda. Mazepin has generally been off the pace compared to Haas teammate Schumacher and has previously admitted the technical side of the sport is more complicated than he thought. “These cars are so much more complicated to drive and they are so much easier to make mistakes with," Mazepin told RacingNews365.com and other select members of the press. "Not only because the speeds are higher but they are also much easier to be caught out by wind and [a] lack of grip sometimes when you just overheat tyres. “These cars are unforgiving even though people see the walls are very far. At the speeds that we’re travelling, if you lose control, they come towards you very quickly. "There isn’t a certain thing, there's no guarantee that I will not make a mistake anytime soon. We operate at the fastest speed that these cars can take and sometimes mistakes happen. Especially in such early days everyone can be sometimes making mistakes and that's normal." Mazepin's best result of 2021 so far came at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix when he finished 14th. Despite fewer mistakes in recent events, Mazepin has particularly struggled with rear instability, which he feels did improve towards the end of the first half of the season. "The way you need to go fast in these cars is you need to have the confidence in them," said Mazepin. "If you don’t have the confidence, you could put a fantastic lap in but you wouldn’t be able to do that lap in with one minute to go in Q3. “The fundamental thing you need to have is you need to be able to drive the car consistently and trust that the car will take the load that you put in it. At the beginning of this year, I didn’t feel that this car was taking that load and it wasn't giving me the confidence I needed. “But through the hard work and the engineers believing me and listening they are seeing what I am requesting is making sense and they are doing a fantastic job to give me the car that I'm asking for."
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