Following an incident in qualifying where the Haas duo impede💙d Sebastia𝄹n Vettel, tensions flared again on the opening lap of the race.

Mazepin defended aggressively with a late move to the right of the track before the pit 𝓀lane on the start-finish straight.

While i⛦t wasn’t clear at the time, it seems that in avoiding Maz🐼epin, Schumacher hit a bollard, damaging his front wing.

Reflecting on the incident ahead of the Italian Grand Prix, Mazepin said: “It’s good to know that I am not in the bad books so that’s positi🍨ve. I want to respect the privacy of those discussions, the doors were closed and I don’t think it would be comfortable for all parties if it was an open discussion so I will keep it in that.”

Mazepin confirmed that the rules of engagement will remain the same with his teammate, later expl🃏aining how he didn’t break the FIA regulations with regards to wheel-to-wheel combat at Zandvoort.

“They have not because we’ve deemed that I haven’t broken any rules or violations within the FIA sporting and racing regulations… we are going to wor♈k as a team to try and fix that but perhaps sometimes you need to lift when you see that there🐼’s a bollard in front of you instead of damaging your car so we will see.

 “We are here as racing drivers and I think it’s incorrect when dꦆrivers put them above the stewards and driver advisors and say what they should have done because it’s not their position.

 “At the same time, I respect the rules 💯a lot and what the rules say in the book is that unless there’s a significant portion of the car behind is side-by-side to you, you are not entitled to leave a car’s width and you’re entitled to make a move from the left to the right because you’re still in front and you can make your position safely. That’s been the case for many, many years and I respect so and I am going to keep doing so.”

Schumacher agreed with Mazepin that there won’t be any changes as to how he races 🗹his teammate but he wanted to keep any details of the meetings that have taken place to be kept internally.

“As of right now, I don’t think so. Hopefully, we will be able to race just as we do up to now. We’re discussin❀g internally and I think everything has been said from each party. Hopefully, we will ꦡfind the right solution and the right way out of it.”