Mazepin Shocked at Firing from F1 Team, Creates Foundation

Russian Formula One driver Nikita Mazepin. (Getty Images)
Russian Formula One driver Nikita Mazepin. (Getty Images)
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Mazepin Shocked at Firing from F1 Team, Creates Foundation

Russian Formula One driver Nikita Mazepin. (Getty Images)
Russian Formula One driver Nikita Mazepin. (Getty Images)

Russian Formula One driver Nikita Mazepin said he’s still shocked about being fired from the Haas team following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and is creating a foundation to help excluded athletes.

Mazepin was fired last Saturday following F1′s decision to terminate its contract with the Russian GP.

“I did not expect Haas would break the contract with me. I didn’t see it coming,” Mazepin told reporters Wednesday in a news conference. “It was a very painful and unexpected situation for me.”

He was not informed by team owner Gene Haas or team principal Guenther Steiner, but by a lawyer.

“I do feel like I should have had more (support) because there has been no legal reason for the team to terminate my contract,” he said. “I lost my dream.”

Mazepin, whose father reportedly has close links with Russian President Vladimir Putin, sidestepped questions about the war, saying he sees it “on many more levels” than outsiders.

Mazepin learned he was fired at the same time the press did.

“I’m a young man at 23 and I was not ready,” he said. “I did not receive any hint or any support to say ‘This is is the decision we’ve taken, it’s going to go live in 15 minutes, just be ready for it.’”

He wants to come back to F1 but not with Haas.

“Formula One is a dangerous sport, and you have rely and believe in the team you are working with,” he said. “It’s a question of safety. I think it’s fair to say I do not have that trust in them.”

Motorsport’s governing body FIA has banned Russia from all international events but allows individual drivers as neutrals without their national symbols, flags, colors and anthems.

Ahead of the new season, which starts on March 20 in Bahrain, the FIA also demanded drivers sign its principles of peace and neutrality and “to stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine.”

Mazepin said he would have signed it but added that he was looking into further clauses of the document when he was fired.

“I was ready to sign. I would have done it only for one purpose, because I am a racing driver and I wanted to compete,” he said. “Because my contract has been terminated there really is no point in talking about what I could have signed.”

Haas also ended its sponsorship with Russian company Uralkali, which is partly owned by Mazepin’s father, Dmitry Mazepin.

The company is considering legal action.

“Uralkali intends to protect its interests in line with applicable legal procedures and reserves its rights to initiate judicial proceedings, claim damages and seek repayment of the significant amounts Uralkali had paid for the 2022 Formula One season,” Uralkali said in a statement Wednesday.

Money that should have been pumped into the F1 team will fund Mazepin’s foundation called “We Compete As One” — which echoes F1’s motto of inclusion “We Race As One.”

“The foundation will allocate resources, both financial and non-financial, to those athletes who have spent their lives preparing for Olympics or Paralympics, or other top events, only to find that they were forbidden from competing and collectively punished just because of the passports they held,” Mazepin said.

Jobs and legal and psychological aid will be provided.

“No one is thinking what happens next to these athletes,” he said. “This will include athletes from all conflict zones. Our door is open to everybody. We will begin with the Paralympic team from Russia, which was banned from the Games in Beijing having first been told they could travel.”

Mazepin began his news conference by making a brief statement concerning the war.

“Those who don’t live in this part of the world, or were not born here, will only see a part of it. Those of us in Russia or Ukraine see it on many more levels,” he said. “I have friends and relatives who have, by force of fate, found themselves on both sides of this conflict.”

But he did not directly answer whether he deplored the war and whether he could feasibly be seen as a neutral athlete given his father’s reported links to Putin.

“Regarding the conflict that is ongoing, I have stated my views and my position,” Mazepin said. “There will be no more information.”

Mazepin received messages from F1 drivers Sergio Perez, Valtteri Bottas, Charles Leclerc and George Russell.

“It was nothing political,” Mazepin said. “They supported me in feeling for me losing the opportunity.”

His former teammate was not among them.

“Mick Schumacher did not express anything positive or negative. In situations like this you can see the true face of everybody around you,” he said.



Motorcycling-Double Dakar Winner Sunderland Chasing Round the World Record

Rallying - Dakar Rally - Prologue - Alula to Alula - Alula, Saudi Arabia - January 5, 2024 Red Bull GASGAS Factory's Sam Sunderland in action during the prologue stage REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo
Rallying - Dakar Rally - Prologue - Alula to Alula - Alula, Saudi Arabia - January 5, 2024 Red Bull GASGAS Factory's Sam Sunderland in action during the prologue stage REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo
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Motorcycling-Double Dakar Winner Sunderland Chasing Round the World Record

Rallying - Dakar Rally - Prologue - Alula to Alula - Alula, Saudi Arabia - January 5, 2024 Red Bull GASGAS Factory's Sam Sunderland in action during the prologue stage REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo
Rallying - Dakar Rally - Prologue - Alula to Alula - Alula, Saudi Arabia - January 5, 2024 Red Bull GASGAS Factory's Sam Sunderland in action during the prologue stage REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo

Double Dakar Rally motorcycle champion Sam Sunderland is gearing up to ride around the world in 19 days, a record bid that the Briton expects to be mentally more challenging than anything he has done before.

The bid, launched on Thursday, targets a record of 19 days, eight hours and 25 minutes set in 2002 by Kevin and Julia Sanders for the fastest circumnavigation of the globe by motorcycle.

To beat the feat, which is no longer recognised by Guinness World Records because of the dangers involved, the 36-year-old will have to ride 1,000 miles every day and on public roads across Europe, Türkiye and into the Middle East, Reuters reported.

A flight will take him on to the Australian outback, New Zealand and the Americas. From there, he and the Triumph Tiger 1200 go to Morocco and loop back through Europe to Britain.

What could possibly go wrong?

"I don't think you can ride around the world and cover that many miles a day without having a few hiccups along the way," Sunderland told Reuters with a grin.

"When I try and compare it to the Dakar it's going to be probably, in some sense, tougher. Not physically but mentally.

"In the Dakar you've got a heap of adrenaline, you're super focused, things are changing quite often which makes you have to react. And this is like: 'Right, those are your miles for the day, get them done'. It's more like a mental fatigue."

 

ONE DIRECTION

 

The target time excludes ocean crossings but the journey, starting in September, must go one way around the world and start and finish at the same location on the same machine.

Two antipodal points must be reached on a journey through more than 15 countries and 13 time zones. The Dakar rally covers 5,000 miles over two weeks.

"I was trying to put it into perspective for my mum the other day, and my mum lives in Poole in the south of England, and I was like 'Mum, it's like you driving up to Scotland and perhaps halfway back every day for 19 days'," said Sunderland.

"I'm on the bike for around 17 hours (a day). I set off at 5 a.m. and arrive around 10, 11 p.m. most nights. So definitely later into the day you feel that sort of mental fatigue setting in, and to stay focused and stimulated is not that easy.

"But at least I don't have dunes and mountains to deal with and other riders in the dust, and hopefully not getting lost either."

"I need to behave, let's say, I need to follow the rules of the road and be a good boy with it," said Sunderland, who announced his retirement from professional racing last year.

Sunderland will have a support crew of six travelling behind by car, for security and assistance, but the Red Bull-backed rider expects to be well ahead.

He also hopes his bid will have a positive effect.

"In the news today, it's all sort of doom and gloom in the world, with all the wars going on," he said. "And I think it's quite nice to show people that you can still get out there and experience the world for what it really is."