Former F1 driver Nikita Mazepin claims he wants to help other athletes who have been persecuted because of their nationalities.
The ousted Haas driver is setting up a foundation called “We Compete As One” in the aftermath of his dismissal from Haas F1. The team said on Saturday that it was cutting ties with the Russian driver in the wake of his country’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Mazepin came to the team in 2021 along with sponsor Uralkali. The fertilizer company is owned by his father, Dmitry, a Russian oligarch. And Dmitry Mazepin and Uralkali are reportedly part of the latest European Union sanctions against Russians because of Vladimir Putin’s onslaught.
Uralkali is demanding a refund from Haas to fund the foundation, which Nikita Mazepin says will support "athletes who have spent their lives preparing for Olympics or Paralympics or other top events only to find they were forbidden from competing and collectively punished just because of the passports they held,”
After he was fired on Saturday, Mazepin complained of Haas' "unilateral" decision that didn't go through due process in a statement that can kindly be considered tone-deaf in the wake of Putin's orders.
"As most of the sponsorship funding for the 2022 season has already been transferred to Haas and given that the Team terminated the sponsorship agreement before the first race of the 2022 season, Haas has thus failed to perform its obligations to Uralkali for this year's season," the company said in a statement. "Uralkali shall request the immediate reimbursement of the amounts received by Haas."
"The refund from Haas and the remaining part of Uralkali's sponsor financing for 2022 will be used to establish the We Compete As One athlete support foundation."
According to The Times, Mazepin was one of many oligarchs who met with Putin immediately after Russia's invasion began to discuss impending sanctions against the country because of the onslaught.
Mazepin was expendable at Haas because he wasn’t very good in his first — and only? — Formula 1 season. He failed to score a point or even come close to getting a top-10 finish. He consistently ran behind teammate Mick Schumacher as Haas regularly had the slowest cars on the grid.
The team had already stood by Mazepin in the face of controversy before his rookie campaign in F1 began. Mazepin was captured on video groping a woman in a car and he and the team apologized for the inappropriate incident.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine happened during the first F1 preseason testing session of the season. Haas took the Uralkali branding off its cars for the final day of the session. Reserve driver Pietro Fittipaldi is testing in Mazepin's place, and the team said Wednesday that Mazepin would be replaced by Kevin Magnussen for the 2022 season.
Welcome back, K-Mag! ??@KevinMagnussen will partner @SchumacherMick in our 2022 driver line-up ?#HaasF1pic.twitter.com/L4bz9TfMcR
— Haas F1 Team (@HaasF1Team) March 9, 2022
Magnussen drove for Haas F1 for four seasons before parting ways with the team after the 2020 season as Haas added Schumacher to its lineup and hired Mazepin because of the sponsorship money that came with him.
Haas F1 is owned by Stewart-Haas Racing NASCAR team co-owner Gene Haas. He told the Associated Press at Sunday's NASCAR race in Las Vegas that “there was a lot of intense criticism about the Ukrainian invasion and it was just getting overwhelming. We can’t deal with all that, our other sponsors can’t deal with all that.”
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