- Haas drivers Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher almost crashed into each other during Dutch GP.
- Schumacher claimed Mazepin “wants to be in front of me at any cost.”
- They also clashed during qualifying, forcing four-time champ Sebastian Vettel to abort a quick lap.
Bubbling tensions between two teammates threatened to boil over Sunday as Haas drivers Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher almost crashed into each other at the Dutch Grand Prix.
During the opening lap of the race, Schumacher was attempting to overtake his teammate on the inside when Mazepin came across to defend.
With the gap now closed, Schumacher swerved to avoid contact and almost ended up driving down the entrance to the pits in order to stay on the track.
After the race, the 22-year-old accused his teammate of wanting to be in front of him “at any cost.”
“I think obviously again there was a little coming together with my teammate for some reason which I don’t understand. But you know, I think obviously it seems that is the way it is.
“It just seems he’s got this thing in his head where he wants to, at any cost, be in front of me, and that’s okay, I have nothing against it.
“But I think if we go to the point where we defend very aggressively against a teammate where you don’t have anything to gain, then I think maybe that’s not the right approach,” Schumacher said.
It was not the first time the two clashed during the weekend as an incident during Saturday’s qualifying caused four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel to slow dramatically in order to avoid a crash.
During the session, Mazepin overtook his teammate but as he did so, he blocked Vettel, who was on a quick lap, and caused the German to qualify in 17th.
“I’m really annoyed to be honest. How the rules in a Formula 1 team works, one weekend you’re the first car, next weekend you’re the second car. This weekend it was my turn to be the first car.
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“I once in Imola overtook the first car when I was the second car and I got a bollocking from the team and now this has happened to me for the second time where my teammate overtakes me and then bumps me into the traffic and then fucks my last attempt in qualifying on purpose.
“So I’m not happy because if you do it once and you didn’t know about it, that’s fine, but when you do it twice, that’s deliberate. There shouldn’t be any tension like that in the team, so I’m fucked off,” Mazepin said.
Schumacher finished the race in 17th while Mazepin retired with a hydraulic issue.