The Russian is no longer a teammate of Mick Schumacher, and the team also canceled the sponsorship deal with Masepin’s father’s company. His successor might be the grandson of a Formula 1 world champion.
Mick Schumacher gets a new teammate in Formula 1: The US team Haas has separated from its Russian driver Nikita Masepin (23), as the racing team announced on Saturday. In addition, the Russian mining company Uralkali, in which Masepin’s billionaire father Dmitri is the majority shareholder, is no longer the main sponsor of the team. The sponsorship is said to have brought Haas around 40 million euros a year.
“The Haas F1 Team has decided to terminate the partnership with Uralkali and the contract with Nikita Masepin with immediate effect,” the statement said: “Like all of Formula 1, the team is shocked and affected by the invasion of Ukraine and hopes for a peaceful end to the conflict.”
In a statement on social media, Nikita Masepin was “very disappointed” with the decision and accused the team of taking this “unilateral step”: “The FIA’s decision and my continued willingness to accept the proposed terms in order to continue have been completed ignored.” He will “have more to say in the coming days”.
Haas initially left unanswered who will be Schumacher’s new teammate. Pietro Fittipaldi is the favourite. The 25-year-old Brazilian, grandson of two-time world champion Emerson Fittipaldi, has been a test and reserve driver for Haas so far. In the last two races of the 2020 season, he replaced Frenchman Romain Grosjean following his fire accident. Due to the Russian attack on Ukraine, team boss Günther Steiner had the Russian colors and the Uralkali logo removed from the Haas car on the last day of testing in Barcelona. From next Thursday there will be further test drives in Bahrain, where the new season will also start on March 20th.
The world automobile association FIA had allowed Russian drivers to take part in FIA competitions such as the Formula 1 World Championship as neutral athletes despite the Russian invasion of Ukraine – on the condition that “they expressly agree to comply with the FIA principles of peace and commit to political neutrality”. The British Automobile Association, on the other hand, issued a complete ban on participation for teams, drivers and officials from Russia and Belarus. A start for Masepin in the tenth race of the season on July 3 at Silverstone would have been impossible even without Haas’ separation.