“I see huge risks in it”
Mazepin fears war statement
4/8/2022 7:04 am
Shortly before the start of the Formula 1 season, Nikita Mazepin loses his cockpit at Haas. Also because of the closeness of his father Dmitri to Vladimir Putin. He does not create a clear distance to the Russian war of aggression. Even a month later, he is having a hard time making a clear statement.
What does Nikita Mazepin actually do? After he was thrown out of the US racing team Haas shortly before the start of the Formula 1 season and his angry reckoning with the team, with team boss Günther Steiner and his ex-teammate Mick Schumacher, things had gone quiet around the Russian. Now he has spoken again in an interview with the British BBC, and when it comes to the subject of the war in Ukraine, he falters again and once again withdraws into the role of the victim.
In the conversation, Mazepin raises serious allegations against the world motorsport association FIA. The 23-year-old senses an agenda against Russia on the part of the FIA and other top sporting organizations. The former Formula 1 driver sees the exclusion of Russian athletes from numerous associations – because of the war of aggression against Ukraine – as discrimination. “If you look at the whole situation, how people are generally taking action against athletes, that’s cancel culture against my country.” He himself still has no understanding that he is on the international sanctions list.
On March 9, the European Union put the pilot and his father Dmitri on its extended list of oligarchs and individuals whose assets are frozen in the EU and who are no longer allowed to enter the country. Four days earlier, the Haas racing team had terminated the contract with Mazepin. The team also parted ways with Russian title sponsor Uralkali. Mazepin’s father is a co-owner of the mining company and is said to have close ties to Putin. According to the EU, he belonged to the circle of oligarchs that Putin invited to a meeting on February 24, the day the war began.
“Painful for me on several levels”
Haas lacked a clear distance from his driver to Putin and his war. “Those who do not live in this part of the world or were not born here” would see only part of the conflict. People from Russia and Ukraine would understand it on many more levels,” he said, denying the West the sovereignty of interpretation. “Regarding the current conflict, I have set out my views and my point of view in my statement,” he added at the time. In fact, he didn’t.
And so far it hasn’t. When asked about the atrocities in Ukraine, including the Bucha massacre that had just shaken the world, the 23-year-old told journalist Stephen Sackur: “Stephen, I live in the same world as you, albeit a three or four-hour flight removed. But it’s very painful for me to watch on several levels.”
“Can’t please anyone anyway”
He doesn’t want to be more specific, apparently also because he fears incalculable consequences: “My feelings as a person, as a person who wants to live in a peaceful world, have obviously changed,” explained Mazepin. “But I want to be honest, I see huge risks in saying anything. Because: I can’t please anyone anyway. That’s why I will remain silent in public.”
In his first public reckoning on March 9, he had confessed: “I lost my dream, which I fought for 18 years of my life. I don’t think that’s fair.” He was particularly disappointed with team boss Steiner. Mazepin accused him of insincerity. You could always rely on Steiner’s word “110 percent,” said Mazepin. He then found out about his termination without warning when the decision was published. Since then there has been no contact with Steiner. Not even to Schumacher. “In situations like these, your true self shows,” said Mazepin, who had a divided relationship with the German during the 2021 season.