Nikita Mazepin

Nikita Dmitryevich Mazepin (Ники́та Дми́триевич Мазе́пин; born 2 March 1999) is a Russian professional racing driver who most recently drove in the 2023–24 Asian Le Mans Series under a neutral flag driving for 99 Racing.

A formula racing driver for much of his career, he raced in Formula One for Haas F1 Team in the 2021 Formula One World Championship under a neutral flag representing the Russian Automobile Federation.

Due to the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, Haas terminated their agreement with Mazepin, as well as with the title sponsor — the Russian company Uralkali.

He is the son of Dmitry Mazepin, a Belarusian-Russian oligarch businessman who is the former core shareholder and former chairman of Uralchem.

Mazepin made his car racing debut in the MRF Challenge Formula 2000 at the end of 2014, driving in the first round of the series and grabbing his first podium in just his second race of his single-seater career.

Having won the Russian Karting championship, Mazepin started his international karting career in 2011 in the Trofeo Andrea Margutti.

He quickly moved up the ranks, driving in the CIK-FIA Karting European Championship in the KF3 class in just his second year of competition.

In 2013 he finished fourth in the KFJ-category of the WSK Super Master Series, and in 2014, his final year of karting, he came 2nd in the Karting World Championship to Lando Norris.

In 2016, Mazepin competed in the 2016 FIA Formula 3 European Championship for Hitech Grand Prix.

He scored four points-scoring finishes and finished 20th in the championship, last of all full-time entrants.

After being blocked during a session by Callum Ilott, Mazepin got into an altercation with the other driver, during which Mazepin hit Ilott in the face, resulting in a ban from the first race of the Hungaroring meeting.

The sanction itself was controversial, with Frits van Amersfoort, boss of Ilott's team, believing the decision to be too lenient, calling it "a ridiculous decision by the stewards".

Despite the controversies of 2016, Mazepin was retained for another season.

He improved significantly compared to his first year, scoring 108 points and finishing on the podium on three occasions.

He finished in tenth, one place behind teammate Ralf Aron.

He then made the switch to compete in the Toyota Racing Series with ETEC Motorsport, where he finished 18th in the drivers' standings.

He followed that up by racing for Josef Kaufmann Racing in the Formula Renault Northern European Cup alongside Louis Delétraz, Kevin Jörg and fellow rookie Dries Vanthoor.

Mazepin scored one podium with a third-place finish at the Red Bull Ring, and ended up twelfth in the championship.

Mazepin moved to GP3 in 2018 to race for ART Grand Prix alongside Callum Ilott, Jake Hughes and eventual champion Anthoine Hubert.

He won four races, the most of any driver that year, and finished second in the championship, only 16 points behind Hubert.

Furthermore, he helped his team secure the title in the team championship.

While his teammate ended up winning the championship, Mazepin ended the season in 18th place with 11 points.

In 2019, Mazepin progressed to Formula 2 to partner Nyck de Vries at ART Grand Prix.

His season was marked by causing an accident with Nobuharu Matsushita in the sprint race at the Sochi Autodrom.

On 9 December 2020, Mazepin posted an Instagram story in which he appeared to inappropriately grope a woman's breasts.

In a statement, the Haas F1 Team rebuked Mazepin's actions and called the video "abhorrent".

Mazepin also released an apology, stating "I have to hold myself to a higher standard as a Formula 1 driver and I acknowledge I have let myself and many people down", but the apology was deleted nine days later.

In March 2021, Mazepin reiterated that he understood his actions were wrong.

The woman in the video defended Mazepin and labelled his actions as a joke between the two.

The woman has since posted content on her own social media stating "never let them touch you again or be disrespectful to you" and the two have since unfollowed each other.

The controversy led to the hashtag "#WeSayNoToMazepin" to trend on Twitter, calling for Mazepin's removal from the Haas F1 Team.

In March 2022, Nikita and Dmitry were included on the EU sanctions list, following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

He was also later sanctioned by the United Kingdom in April 2022 over the same reason.

He has also been sanctioned by Canada.

In April 2022 a residential compound owned by Nikita and Dmitry in Portisco, Sardinia that was worth more than $114 million was seized by Italian authorities.

Following his dismissal from Formula One, Mazepin created "We Compete as One", a foundation to support athletes excluded for "political reasons".

In 2023 he launched a challenge against the EU, UK, and Canadian sanctions against him in a bid to revive his racing career.

In June 2023 a U.K. high court rejected a bid to suspend the sanctions against him on an interim basis so he could travel to the U.K. to negotiate with F1 teams based there.

In September 2023 the EU sanctions against Mazepin were partially lifted by general court order with him being allowed to visit the EU for activities related to motorsport, though he is still sanctioned by the EU generally and is not allowed to enter the EU for non-motorsport reasons.

In 2020, he signed for the new Hitech Grand Prix Team to drive alongside Italian Luca Ghiotto.