Haas on a tightrope regarding spare parts after Jeddah crashes

Guenther Steiner says Haas has enough spare parts to rebuild its two cars after Sunday's costly Saudi Arabian GP but has little margin to deal with any eventual damage that would occur in Abu Dhabi.

Mick Schumacher kicked off the carnage on lap 9 when he spun at Jeddah's treacherous Turn 22, the corner that caught out Charles Leclerc on Friday.

The German driver's crash triggered a red flag but on the restart, as a melee developed into Turn 3 following a contact between Leclerc and Sergio Perez, a helpless Nikita Mazepin ran into the back of the slowing Williams of George Russell.

It was a scary moment for the Russian, but the damage to his car was extensive and beyond repair. Haas will therefore roll out its spare for Mazepin at Yas Marina.

• Read also: F1i's Driver Ratings for the 2021 Saudi Arabian GP

"Mick was three corners completely, gearbox, floor, sidepod," explained Steiner, quoted by Motorsport.com.

"His chassis is good, but Nikita's chassis is gone. Another one bites the dust.

"It's better the damage is done now than five races ago," added the Italian.

"We have got one race to go, we've got enough spares to rebuild the cars, but we don't have enough spares if we have accidents in Abu Dhabi.

"We still have got some, we're not completely out. But there is not a lot of margin, because we didn't expect at the second last race to destroy two cars. It's never good to do this."

Steiner says his team will manage its final race weekend of 2021 fine, as long as it stays out of trouble. But the Haas chief will be happy to see the season end.

"As I said, we are good with spare parts, we knew we are good, we planned, we are not running out, but we are using everything up that we have got," he said.

"If we have a crash in Abu Dhabi in FP1 it's getting tight, because you have two days to go. But otherwise we are fine.

"It's like it doesn't rain, but it pours, so at the moment, it's pouring. The good thing is we've got only one race to go, otherwise, if you've got three races to go, you need to produce parts.

"You cannot now, because you haven't got the time anyway – in three days, you don't make these parts. We have enough and we can just get to the end. And we'll have no inventory left to write off at the end of the year!"

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