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Nikita Mazepin faced a rather unfortunate exit from F1 after the Russo-Ukrainian war broke out. Russia has faced worldwide condemnation against it and its citizens, with Mazepin losing his seat at Haas as a result. He was subsequently replaced by Kevin Magnussen.
Meanwhile, his father, Dmitry Mazepin, was trying to get a reimbursement for the money given to Haas as sponsorship. With both him and his son Nikita being included in the sanctions list, however, that eventuality is all but over.
Speaking about the entire ordeal that he has had to go through, Nikita Mazepin called out the 'cancel culture' against his country's athletes. Speaking to BBC Hardtalk, he said:
“I don’t agree with being in the sanctions and I have said previously that I intend to fight it. Perhaps now is not the right time because if you look at the whole situation that is happening against athletes in the general case, it is cancel culture against my country. That is about the sanctions.”
Nikita Mazepin: Tremendous risk in making my views public
When questioned on his views on what is happening in the world right now, Nikita Mazepin was very candid in stating that he felt a tremendous risk in making his views public. He claimed there's no way he would be able to please everyone with how he feels about the current situation and will invariably end up courting even more controversy. He said:
“I live in the same world as you although we perhaps are three or four hours away from each other by plane but it is very painful to watch that on many levels. My feelings, they obviously changed as a human being and as a person that wants to live in a very peaceful world. But I will be honest with you, I see tremendous risks in saying anything at all about this case because I will never satisfy everyone and therefore, I will keep myself publicly quiet.”
His father, Dmitry, is one of the most influential oligarchs in Russia and is notorious for his proximity to the Russian government. It does appear that all the roads to F1 are probably closed for now for Mazepin and it is highly likely that we won't see him racing in F1 soon.
