Steiner: There's obviously risks with two rookies

With it confirmed that incumbent drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen will be departing at the end of the 2020 season, it is widely expected Haas will give F1 debuts to youngsters Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher, who both have plenty to offer the team on and off the track.

Mazepin, 21, is in his second season in F2, where he has won two races, and is one of the most financially well-supported drivers in the sport courtesy of his Russian oligarch father Dmitry.

Schumacher, also 21, is the son of seven-time world champion Michael, a Ferrari junior driver and currently leads the F2 championship. The Scuderia are responsible for Haas' engine supply.

However when asked about the rumours at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Steiner insisted no decision had been made, but admitted such a pairing had "pros and cons" that were under consideration.

“We haven't decided to take two rookies,” he said. “But I can easily talk you through my thoughts about rookies because we’ve discussed this, and the risks and opportunities with them.

“I think there’s obviously risks that two rookies, they have nobody experienced to look at the data and stuff like this, they need to find out between them what is going on, and there is a risk that that goes wrong. But there are technical means [which we can use to] help them. But the pros are you can put them in the direction you want to put them, and then they grow with the team.”

Furthermore, Steiner suggests Haas' unique approach to business in its five years in the sport so far lend itself to such an ambitious undertaking.

“Because it was never done, it doesn't mean that it doesn't work,” he explained. “For sure, there is a risk that it doesn't work – I do not want to be ignorant to that – but we've done a few things different to other people. A few years ago, I was asked, why do you keep Romain so long, because nobody has kept anybody so long!

“We don't need to do what other people did, we will do what we think is right, and if it works or not, we will be judged on that. So we take that risk and we take the opportunities. If we take two rookies, we have thought it through, we know the pros and we know the cons.”

Additionally, with 2021 the final year before F1 undergoes radical technical and sporting regulation changes, Steiner said next season is the best chance the team has to reset its lineup.

“Next year is an interim year, so if we get two drivers, we do it now so that we get used to the drivers… and then in ’22, we’ll have them ready when the new regulations come.

“Because to put new drivers in in ’22, for me it would have been a little bit risky, because then you have to learn two things: a complete new car and new drivers.”