Formula 1: Mazepin dad threatened Haas over his son being so slow

Dmitry Mazepin threatened Haas after finding out how slow his son Nikita truly was during the start of his rookie Formula 1 season.

Ahead of the 2021 Formula 1 season, Haas signed Uralkali as their new title sponsor, and with that announcement came the confirmation that Nikita Mazepin would join the team as a rookie driver.

Nikita is the son of Dmitry Mazepin, the CEO of Uralchem. Uralchem holds a controlling stake in Uralkali, and Dmitry wanted his son behind the wheel of one of the two VF-21 cars.

The move was widely criticized, not only because of Mazepin’s checkered past off the track, but because of the fact that there were far better and more talented options available. However, in need of funding, Haas went with Dmitry’s money and placed Mazepin Jr. alongside fellow rookie Mick Schumacher.

Schumacher dominated Mazepin from the get-go, as many expected he would.

But apparently Mazepin Sr. didn’t expect it. In the fourth season of Formula 1: Drive to Survive, it was revealed that tensions escalated early in the 2021 season, and Dmitry threatened to pull funding from Haas and leave the sport altogether, believing that his son was given an inferior car.

Here is what Dmitry told team advisor Jesper Carlsen at the Spanish Grand Prix weekend at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in mid-May.

"“If it doesn’t change, I will send an official letter that we stop financing and stop racing. It will be a huge problem with the money. And they will decide what to do because we will not keep this ‘let’s do, let’s do, let’s try, let’s try.’ We already tried three races and if we remove the Uralkali, we stop racing. Switch the cars. Everybody knows that someone has an advantage.”"

It really is so easy to play the victim.

Here is what team principal Guenther Steiner told the younger Mazepin.

"“It’s the same car. As much as you believe it’s not, it’s the same car.”"

Steiner did confirm that one of the team’s two chassis was heavier than the other, but he also mentioned that it had been rotated between the two rookies.

Mazepin did end up receiving a new chassis for the second half of the season, beginning with the Belgian Grand Prix at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in late August.

He went on set the fastest lap in the race.

Sort of.

The race ended up being nothing but a two-lap procession behind the safety car, as the full race was unable to be contested due to rain.

Mazepin unofficially set the race’s fastest lap time during that procession, and it will forever be fitting that he owns the fastest lap in a two-lap race which took four hours to complete.

But on a serious note, the chassis change didn’t seem to make much of a difference, as Schumacher continued to perform at a higher level than the Russian driver throughout the rest of the year.

By the time the season ended, Mazepin had more spins than race starts (22 vs. 21), and he finished in 21st place in the driver standings, despite the fact that only 19 other drivers competed full-time.

Mazepin will not compete in the 2022 season, as Haas cut ties with Uralkali over the ongoing Russia/Ukraine conflict and Dmitry’s ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Nikita’s replacement is Kevin Magnussen, ironically the driver whom Nikita replaced in 2021.