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Haas Formula 1 drivers Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin need to be “careful” at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as chassis damage could rule them out of the weekend.
The team has suffered damage to two chassis at the last two races in Qatar and Saudi Arabia and has no spare at the season finale.
Mazepin damaged one chassis on a kerb at Losail and switched to a replacement which was damaged beyond repair in a huge accident in Jeddah, where Schumacher also crashed out of the race.
Other parts are also in short supply, but they are of less concern than the lack of a spare chassis, as Mazepin has had to switch to the previous spare for the finale.
“The last two races, Saudi and Qatar, we had some damage and there was no time to recover or to make new parts obviously,” Haas team principal Guenther Steiner explained.
“So our stock is pretty low on parts but we have got enough to do the race if we don’t have any big accidents on Friday, then we will be OK.
“But the drivers will be made aware of the situation – I think they are already aware that they cannot take any risks on Friday.
“It’s not like that we are completely without parts. We’ve got enough parts. If we have a Friday this weekend like we had Sunday last weekend, we wouldn’t survive that.”
Haas is coming to the end of a season with what is essentially – bar minor upgrades – the same car that it started the season with in Bahrain.
It has proved a tricky car for its all-rookie line-up to handle at times, with Schumacher crashing out of qualifying at Paul Ricard and missing qualifying at the Hungaroring due to an FP3 shunt.
His team-mate Mazepin spun out on the first lap of the Bahrain season-opener and has lost control of his Haas on multiple further occasions.
When asked by The Race if it was just chassis damage that Haas is vulnerable to this weekend, Steiner admitted stock of the rest of the parts “is not high” but the chassis is the main concern.
“We’ve got enough of wings and floors so we should be OK with that one,” he added.
“But let’s see, normally when you do a chassis you need other parts as well so we just need to be a little bit careful on Friday but then we will be OK.
“It’s not like a panic situation. We just need to be careful on Friday.”
