Nikita Mazepin has been Terminated from Haas F1 Team no Replcacement has been named

 Last year the Haas F1 team brought in two rookies one the son of a 7 time champion that many people have high expectations to someday carry the mantle at Ferrari. And the other a Russian driver with a lot of money that barely got the 40 points needed to get a Super License to compete in Formula 1. In late 2020 their was video of Nikita Mazepin the second of those drivers groping a women. This led to the We Say No to Mazepin movement on social media where people on social media shared that hashtag and the reasons they felt Mazepin did not belong in F1. They ranged from not wanting a sexual predator in the sport and his dodgy driving in the junior formula. 

Today Haas announced just a few days before the opening test in Bahrain that they have terminated their contract with Nikita Mazepin as well as the company owned by his father Dmitri Mazepin, Uralkali. This is in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

While I believe that Mazepin who finished 21st in the 20 driver field last year does not deserve to have a seat in F1 I believe that terminating his contract in this matter is not far. I also believe that the ban on Russian futbol clubs competing in international competition as a result of the invasion is unfair. In this case the athletes that are affected did nothing wrong. 

The IOC which the FIA is a part of had recommended the Russian and Belarusian athletes be barred from international competition based on the events that have occurred over the last couple of weeks. Many of them have actually condemned the actions of their government. Additionally, Russia is not the only nation that has some questionable actions happening, but it is the only one that the IOC recommends barring from coemption. 

The FIA is said that Russian athletes would be allowed to compete under the neutral flag of the FIA, but teams owned by Russians would not be allowed to enter any international competition The sanctions that the United States has placed on Russia meant that Uralkali had to be terminated because they had no way of paying the team. This was the money that allowed Mazepin to have his seat with Haas F1 team and technically the reason he is no longer an employee. 

Mazepin released a statement saying that he was willing to accept the conditions imposed on him by the FIA he is disappointed that this unilateral step has been taken to remove him from his seat.  In his statement he says people were not willing to work with him on the solutions that he had come up with in regards to this. 

His accomplishments in F1 do no speak for themselves and if he did bring money it would have been likely that he would have been dropped in 2021. He spun more times in his career than times he started a GP. He missed the 107% rule on at least one occasion. In his first GP he spun three corners into it despite having over 5 days of practice at the track in the previous two weeks at the circuit. He finished 21st in a 20 driver field. And most of the time he was over a minute behind his teammate. The only time he ever finished ahead of his teammate Mick Schumacher was when his teammate crashed. He was the only driver to not make it into Q2 last season. 

While it is true that Nikita Mazepin should not be an F1 driver him losing his job because a deranged man decided to invade a sovereign nation is not the reason he should have been removed from his drive.