Guenther Steiner says Haas is looking at the offer from Dimtry Mazepin of the bonus scheme as Nikita speaks on why he got his dad involved in it.

Bonus schemes, pay incentives, keeping the employees happy. All companies have their own ways of treating and looking after their staff. Companies go through peaks and troughs, good times and bad. Loyalty is what an organisation needs and right now, 2021’s F1 wooden spoonist’s of Formula 1, Haas possibly need as much loyalty as is at all possible.

It was a tough season for them, coupled with two rookie drivers to boot. As an outfit having finished bottom of  the order, it can difficult for staff to stay or to want to stay.  They did their best and things didn’t happen and with the calendar expanding, it is tough on their body and their families too.

There were stories of people leaving too, whether the sport or to different teams. The Mazepin family offered a plan of bonus for the employees. Dimtry wanted to motivate the employees to stay back but as a sponsor their hands were tied to do maximum and with budget cap in place, it is not an easy way.

Steiner, a man who had endured a tough season, noted the help from Mazepin and added that Haas is looking at ways to take the help. “We don’t have people running away,” he started. “We have about 60 people who 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 careers, 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 into it, how we can make it work with the budget cap, legally and all that stuff and then we see when we get back to him,” summed up Steiner. The Italian seems cool, calm and collected and has everything covered off for now. Driver Mazepin is a touch more concerned regarding the matter.

He expressed his worries about people leaving Haas as well as voicing his fathers ideas and the routes that they have taken to media including Motorsport Network. “I have told my dad that I’m very concerned about people leaving, good people leaving,” said Mazepin. “I know that different people had different thoughts in their head, but some of them were financially concerned. And I’m very fortunate and lucky that he 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.

“The most important thing about it is that it happened totally voluntarily. He doesn’t get anything from it, apart from I think he’s in a stage of his life where he wants to give things back because he’s got enough success. He now really is concerned about the people that actually do the hard work, people that work in the mines, in his factories, and the real employees at the very, very low level in the teams,” summed up Mazepin.

One might think that Mazepin senior has gone down a different route of motivation for his employees in all the ventures that he is involved in. He probably has. A sort of workplace psychology.  As his son advised, he could have thrown money at them but instead he wants people to achieve certain things and then be rewarded. It’s a strong and clever idea.

The story was written by Neil Farell

Here’s Mick Schumacher on his learning

Here’s Nikita Mazepin, Guenther Steiner on highs and lows

Here’s Haas on passing the crash test