Nikita Mazepin lost his ride with Haas ahead of the 2022 Formula 1 season. But we can’t ignore the good side of what he has done in the sport.
Haas made the rumors official on Saturday morning when they announced that they had terminated the contracts of both title sponsor Uralkali and driver Nikita Mazepin ahead of the 2022 Formula 1 season.
The move was seen as inevitable following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Dmitry Mazepin, Nikita’s father, is the CEO of Uralchem, and Uralchem holds a controlling stake in Uralkali. He was one of the oligarchs called to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin amid the invasion, and he had been closely linked to Putin from past meetings.
As such, the pressure was too great on Haas to allow Uralkali to remain tied to the team, and with them out, Nikita had no chance to stay on, even though FIA had previously ruled that Russian drivers may continue to compete under a neutral flag.
Many of the same people who criticized Mazepin ahead of his rookie season last year and took part in the #WeSayNoToMazepin campaign due to some of the things he had done leading up him landing the seat as a pay driver voiced their displeasure with the move, nothing that he technically had nothing to do with the reason why Haas dropped him.
Alas, his ties to Uralkali — and more notably, his father — gave the Russian driver no chance to continue his Formula 1 career.
We can, and have in the past, gone into the many negatives surrounding Mazepin and his career, both on and off the race track. It’s out there.
But while it has always been easy to dwell on all of that, even amid what many believed was an unjust firing, let’s take a small step back for a second.
Let’s not ignore the positive side of what the 23-year-old brought, and could very well continue to bring, to motorsport.
During the weekend of his home race, the Russian Grand Prix, at Sochi Autodrom last year, he revealed that he would be supporting a cerebral palsy charity, Font of Kindness, and doubling funds raised by the public in the fundraising drive. He made this commitment as a way of furthering Formula 1’s recent “We Race As One” initiative.
And when the third practice session for the race was cancelled, he invited a special guest into the garage. Makar, a young boy with cerebral palsy, had the chance to get behind the wheel of Mazepin’s VF-21.
The support didn’t stop there. Earlier this month, even during a tumultuous time when he was facing an uncertain future in Formula 1, he announced the launch of his new “Formula for Freedom” karting club, which was orchestrated as a way of giving adults and children with cerebral palsy the opportunity to enjoy the experience of karting.
He shared the following message on Instagram last week, along with a video.
"“Today is a very special day for me, so I would like to share a new project that I launched earlier this week and which is very dear to my heart. Together with @podarok_angelu, @ibakaidov and @primokarting, we held the grand opening of the Formula of Freedom karting club for children and adults with cerebral palsy. Moving is living! If you would like to support this project, which provides free instruction and facilities to amateur drivers with motor disabilities, please click on the link in bio. #WeRaceAsOne #NM9”"
There are always at least two sides to a story.