Formula 1: Nikita Mazepin situation takes a completely predictable turn

The Haas Formula 1 team have confirmed that Nikita Mazepin will not be fired despite posting a video of himself reaching for a woman’s shirt and grabbing her breasts.

Like we all expected, Nikita Mazepin has retained his ride with the Haas Formula 1 team for the 2021 season alongside fellow rookie Mick Schumacher despite posting a video which the team referred to as “abhorrent”.

Mazepin posted a video on his Instagram story of himself reaching for a woman’s shirt and grabbing her breast as she resisted and flipped off the camera.

She later came to his defense and noted that it was only a joke between the two, but the fact that it was shared to begin with left a sour taste in the mouths of many, especially given Formula 1’s recent #WeRaceAsOne campaign. Mazepin apologized via a statement on Twitter but later deleted it.

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Haas condemned the action and the fact that it was shared publicly and noted that the situation would be dealt with internally.

In response to further questions about the matter, team principal Guenther Steiner (yes, the “we  f****** look like a bunch of w******” dude) noted that maybe the public “will never know what was dealt with, and what are the circumstances”, because he could keep it all private.

It would be hard to keep a Formula 1 driver firing private.

And a firing isn’t happening, the sport’s lone American team confirmed in a statement — just as we all basically expected.

"“Haas F1 Team would like to reaffirm that Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher will form its driver line-up for the 2021 FIA Formula 1 world championship. As per the team’s previous statement regarding the actions of Nikita Mazepin (9 December) – this matter has now been dealt with internally and no further comment shall be made.”"

Why did we all expect this?

Because of Mazepin’s backing. His father Dmitry is a billionaire who founded the Russian chemical company Uralchem and maintains his role as majority shareholder.

Haas, in desperate need for funding, weren’t about to throw away Dmitry’s money by firing his son, despite rumors that existing sponsors would not take on the role of associating themselves with the 21-year-old.

Many fans have even suggested that Dmitry played a role in the woman defending Nikita.

Alas, this move only furthers the beliefs of those who already claim that the #WeRaceAsOne initiative is nothing more than “Look at us! We’re doing something! We’re helping!” type of thing, because then when something actually needed to be done by one of the sport’s 10 teams to fight the many issues covered by this alleged campaign, *crickets*.

Many have sort of assumed that from the start, though; we just needed something stupid like this to come along and happen before our eyes with nothing noteworthy being done about it, despite its magnitude, in order to confirm that assumption.

We’ll see if the FIA take any further action on Mazepin, who has become a problem child over the years even before this recent abhorrent behavior.