‘No funding issues!’ Haas confident to go ahead without Nikita Mazepin and UralKali
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Guenther Steiner
The war between Russia and Ukraine has had several consequences for people in both countries as well as around the world. Some of the consequences are crippling into the world of sports, and now various global sporting organizations such as the FIA and FIFA have reacted to this.
Haas F1 team, which had UralKali as its main sponsor and hence had it flashed across its livery, has to now take a call to eliminate the Russian company as its sponsor. The company has ties to the Russian oligarch and team’s driver Nikita Mazepin‘s dad, Dmitry Mazepin, who with his sponsorship got his son a seat in the premier racing sport. But the team’s boss, Guenther Steiner, believes they can survive and go about this season even without their Russian sponsor.
F1 has canceled the Russian GP, and the FIA is under pressure to ban the drivers from Russia and Belarus. But, apart from F1 as a whole, it’s the Haas F1 team that has to deal with direct issues. The team had to immediately remove the UralKali branding from its livery in Barcelona and its shipping truck as well.
Guenther Steiner believes Haas will have no issues without the Russian money
As the team removed their sponsor, Steiner, in Barcelona, as quoted by the GP Fans, said, “We had to take the decision. We have got more partners now as well. This was the right decision to take. There is no setback for the competition side of the team because of this, none at all. We just need to go through the commercial issues. It just adds to the to-do list, nothing more.”
“It is a headache because it is work but it is not something which disturbs the team on the competition side and financially, we are ok. It has no implementation on the team, how we are running it, how we are doing, how we plan the season. There are more ways to get the funding, so there is no issue with that one,” said Guenther.
It’s clear from the statements that the boss and the team aren’t willing to compromise on its principles. So for that, even if they have to let Mazepin go, they will. Rumors have it that the Russian driver will be replaced either by the Haas reserve driver Pietro Fittipaldi or Antonio Giovinazzi.
ALSO READ: Will Nikita Mazepin be a part of the F1 grid in 2022?
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Manan Goel
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