The future of the Haas F1 team looks bleak by the day. The American team has been caught amongst the rails of the Russia-Ukraine conflict for the past week. One of the team’s main sponsors, Uralkali, is owned by Russian oligarch Dmitry Mazepin. Amidst the news of the invasion, the team decided to remove the company’s name from their car and motorhome.

But several reports have indicated that there were problems brewing between the team and Mazepin for some time. During the struggles in the 2021 season, the Russian oligarch threatened to leave the team and cut off its funding. Many had suspected that they were 2 different chassis for the drivers and Nikita Mazepin was given the inferior one.

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As reported by Soy Motor, the American team were struggling in the 2021 season from the start. But despite its struggles, Mick Schumacher was showing signs of real pace and skills behind the wheel while Dmitry’s son Nikita was crashing everywhere.

Dmitry came out in defense of his son and mentioned that if the team doesn’t change Nikita’s chassis, he would stop the funding.

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“If it doesn’t change, I will send an official letter that we stop financing the team and we stop competing. There will be a huge problem with the money and they will have to decide what to do because we are not going to continue with this.

We are going to do this, we are going to try this. We already tested for three races and if we remove Uralkali, we stop racing. Change the chassis. Everyone knows someone has an advantage,” said Mazepin.

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner mentioned both chassis were similar and not different. “It’s the same car. Even if you think it’s not, it’s the same car,” said Steiner.

Despite getting the same chassis as Schumacher, Nikita struggled to match his teammate. It would be interesting to see if the team keeps Uralkali as their sponsor going forwards or not. The situation also puts Nikita Mazepin’s future in big disarray.

It is still unclear whether he will retain his seat with the Haas F1 Team for the 2022 season or not. Hopefully, we will get the answers soon before the first race of the season.

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