Haas evaluating bonus scheme idea from Mazepin

Mazepin, who owns the Uralkali company that is title sponsor of Haas, has offered to fund an incentive programme to help encourage staff to stay on board for next year.

Rather than change the terms of his sponsorship deal to help increase the team’s budget, he wants extra money to go direct to staff to help keep them motivated.

Mazepin’s son Nikita explained at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix that the idea came about when he expressed some concern about quality staff leaving.

“I have told him [his father] that I'm very concerned about people leaving, good people leaving,” Mazepin told Autosport.

“I know that different people had different thoughts in their head, but quite some of them were financially concerned. And I'm very fortunate and lucky that he [his father] has heard it.

“He's got an amazing track record of giving what he needs to his employees, which numbers over 45,000 in his companies, and he is a professional in it, not me.

“He came up with this idea totally voluntarily to not, let's say, throw money at people, as bad as it may sound, but to motivate people and give them an opportunity to achieve certain things and be rewarded for it.”

Nikita Mazepin, Haas F1, on the grid with his father Dmitry Mazepin

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

When asked by Autosport for his thoughts on the plan, Steiner said he did not think there was any huge worry about Haas losing personnel because of the challenges imposed by an expanding calendar.

However, before going ahead and accepting Mazepin’s offer, he said Haas needed to check on potential implications regarding F1’s budget cap.

“We don't have people running away,” he said. “We have about 60 people which are with us from the beginning. At the end of the season sometimes every year a few people leave because they want to move on in their career. They want to move on from going to all the races, so it's not something unexpected.

“On the offer from Dmitry, we are looking in to how we can make it work with budget cap legally and all that stuff. Then we'll see when we get back to him.”