Haas F1 newcomer Nikita Mazepin Proud of his family, not bothered by the Pay Driver label

Many people in the Formula 1 media may not have heard of Olly Oakes.

He is British and 33 years old. He’s been racing for most of his life when his father ran racing teams, but without really having the money to do it. Olly was a good driver, so good that he won the 2005 Formula A Kart World Championship in Braga, Portugal. To put that in perspective, there were a lot of very good kart drivers on the field that day, some of them doing bigger things, especially future Formula 1 drivers Valtteri Bottas and Jules Bianchi.

Oakes hit her. So he has a pretty good idea of ​​what it takes to be a top-line racing star. His own career ran out of steam (or maybe one should say money) and so he turned to the management and leadership of racing teams. He has looked after many young drivers, notably Ferrari test driver Callum Ilott, aspiring Formula 2 star Marcus Armstrong and a Russian youngster named Nikita Mazepin. He also oversaw George Russell when the Williams F1 driver drove in Formula 3.

Nikita Mazepin is starting his rookie year in Formula 1 with the Haas F1 team. Father Dmitry is the owner of the fertilizer company and team sponsor Uralkali.

Joe PortlockGetty Images

Today, Oakes is managing Mazepin, who will make his F1 debut with Haas F1 in a few weeks’ time, as team-mate of the much-lauded Mick Schumacher. Oakes also runs the Hitech Grand Prix, which runs a number of teams in the Junior Championship, and made a big impression last season in his first year in Formula 2. Perhaps one should say that the Hitech Grand Prix is ​​owned by Dmitry Mazepin, Nikita’s father. Dmitry is keen to see his son in Formula 1, but like Lawrence Stroll with his son Lance, he knows that ultimately it comes down to the driver, not his father.

The Strolls acquired teams to help Lance develop, and often paid for seasoned racers to be his teammates. Today we know what Lance Stroll can do and some of his strengths and weaknesses, but we have yet to see Mazepin’s full potential.

Many people think Mick Schumacher is better than Mazepin, but that is by no means certain. The two were teammates in their early teens when they raced TonyKart in 2013 and 2014. They got along well.

“He was very nice,” said Schumacher. “As teammates there was a good deal of respect among each other. After that I don’t know him that well anymore. It’ll be interesting to meet him next year and of course we’ve all grown since then. “

Mazepin (left) and Mick Schumacher form the only all-rookie F1 team line-up on the Formula starting grid this season.

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In the last two seasons they competed against each other in Formula 2, but not as team-mates. Schumacher drove with Prema Racing for both years and took the F2 title last year despite winning just two races while several title rivals won more. Ilott has won three times, as has Yuki Tsunoda, who is moving to Scuderia AlphaTauri this season. The man who won the most F2 races – Schumacher’s teammate Robert Shwartzman – won four times but was too inconsistent to fight for the title. Mazepin finished fifth in the championship.

The impressive thing about it was that he did it with a team that was new to Formula and he overshadowed Formula 2 veteran Luca Ghiotto. The Italian scored the team’s first victory in the Hungaroring sprint race, the sixth race of the year. But then Mazepin won the main race at Silverstone. Mazepin won again with a stormy race at Mugello, adding four more podiums to end the fifth season behind Schumacher, Ilott, Tsunoda and Shwartzman. Mazepin would have done better overall if he had been a little more consistent and less fiery. But aggression is not uncommon in a young racing driver.

Oliver Oakes manages Nikita Mazepin.

Joe Portlock – Formula 1Getty Images

In Mazepin’s case, while driving in the Formula 3 Euroseries in 2016, some people recall being banned from a race after punching Ilott on the nose after the English blocked him in a qualifying session in Hungary. At the time, Mazepin was also Force India’s F1 development driver. Mazepin said it wasn’t a smart thing and that he needed to be a little more controlled.

However, few doubt that Mazepin has pace. In 2018 he was a teammate of the late Anthoine Hubert in GP3. He won four races against Hubert’s two, but the Frenchman was more consistent and won the title with Mazepin as runner-up.

It is clear that some people do not like Mazepin because his father is rich. Very rich. And he’s a Russian. And rightly or wrongly, many people distrust the Russians. And then of course there was the infamous incident last year when a movie about him groping a woman appeared on social media. Mazepin has been the target of much hatred since then.

“I take responsibility for my actions,” said Mazepin. “I’m very firm in that. Regarding the video coming out on social media, I can say it wasn’t my hands that put it there. I am not proud of it. I took responsibility for it both on and off the track. As humans, we have to show a certain behavior towards one another. “

But few on social media seem willing to accept that young people can make mistakes. Mazepin has been maligned and continues to be attacked at every turn. Mazepin says he has learned from the experience and hopes the criticism subsides.

Oakes believes Mazepin will show what he can do in Formula 1 this year and thinks much of the criticism is unfair.

“The riders he beat in the championship – Lundgaard, Jack Aitkin, Guanyu Zhou, Jehan Daruvala, etc. – are all considered potential stars – but Nikita doesn’t get any credit for beating these guys,” Oakes said recently. “Nikita has had some low blows lately and frankly this is unjustified. This whole brawl of drivers who are lucky enough to have support is just driving me crazy.

“There isn’t one person in F3, F2 or F1 who is poor or has no support. It’s the expensive nature of motorsport. Ultimately, you’re machines of equal order from F4 onwards, so it really doesn’t matter what your bank balance is.”

Mazepin already had the opportunity to test for Mercedes in the post-Spanish GP test in spring 2019. He did well. Times have been good, but more importantly, the team seems impressed. He won’t talk about the test himself.

Nikita Mazepin finished fifth in the Formula 2 championship in 2021.

Bryn LennonGetty Images

“I can’t expand it for contractual reasons,” he said.

However, someone who knows what happened told me that Mercedes was impressed, despite the source asking to remain nameless.

“He was very quick,” they said. “It was a lot better than expected.”

But Mazepin is getting into Formula One and everyone is talking about him for the wrong reasons.

Schumacher has a number of advantages as he is part of the Ferrari academy, has access to simulators and has tested on Ferrari, but it is not clear what the advantage this will be for him.

“There’s no need to guess because there’s no definitive answer there,” says Mazepin. “I don’t know. I hope it won’t make much difference, but I can’t tell because it won’t change my situation at all. I’m here to maximize what I have available for the team. “

Mazepin thinks he can beat Schumacher.

“I’ve done it before when we drove in the same car and I was beaten by him in the same car, so I think everything can be won. The challenge will undoubtedly be very interesting. “

Mazepin accepts that people think he was there because of his father’s money.

“I’m not the only driver who has to take care of it,” he says. “I don’t really mind because I’m proud of my family. I’m proud of my father and don’t take it negatively. I have to prove myself in Formula 1 and I will do it. I had this opportunity. We decided to take it on and my job is, as always, to outperform my teammates and do my best. “

Haas will likely be at the bottom of the F1 grid this year, but Mazepin and Schumacher both view the season as a time to learn and hopefully get a car in 2022 that will make a bigger impression.

“We are in the situation we are in,” said Mazepin after the first day of testing in Bahrain. “Regardless of the team’s plans, the driver’s job is to maximize them and my goal is to go as far as possible. It was important to do a lot of laps as we won’t be running very much this year. The more laps we do, the more familiar I am with the car, but we compete with people who have been in F1 for more than 10 years, which is a huge advantage. “

Mazepin says the Haas appears to be “a good foundation,” even though there won’t be any development with the Haas Auto in 2021.

Nikita Mazepin has no plans to play second fiddle to teammate Mick Schumacher in 2021.

Joe Portlock – Formula 1Getty Images

“I feel prepared,” he said. “If you offered me 10 more minutes on the track, I would of course always take it, but that’s the nature of the F1 world we currently live in. I think I’m in a good place to start my Formula 1 career. The team was incredibly helpful and incredibly good at managing a young driver like me. It’s something I didn’t really expect to get into a team that is used to having experienced drivers, so I’m really excited about it. I am very confident that as a group of people we can really go further together. “

“As a racing driver, you want to try to win as many races as you can,” he added, “but it would be stupid to sit here and say we want to. We have to be honest and realistic. I hope we’ll have a chance to fight other riders out on the track, hopefully on the points, but I don’t know where we stand until we’ve made the first race and judged ourselves.

“I’m very interested in doing the best job possible and seeing where that takes me.”

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