Nikita Mazepin, whose most relevant qualification for his promotion to Formula One last year was "Son," has over the past few months had a pretty stunning fall from, well not quite grace, but let's say the ability to appear in public. If anyone else had earned zero points, finished no higher than 14th in any race, and generally showed a remarkable inability to drive, they would have been insta-replaced, but Mazepin only got his spot on the team because his fertilizer baron father made a hefty investment in an F1 team, so he looked set to earn zero more points for Haas this season. Then, Russia invaded Ukraine and everything changed.
Mazepin's father's close ties with Russian leadership helped him make billions of dollars selling fertilizers through his company Uralkali, though that same association also got him super-mega-sanctioned by Western authorities. Dmitry Mazepin was one of 36 prominent Russian businessmen to attend a meeting with Vladimir Putin immediately after the invasion began, and he also yanked most of his European assets back to Russia in December to get ahead of sanctions. But among the assets that Mazepin the elder was unable to move back to safety was a big-ass compound on Sardinia worth $114 million, which the Italian financial police just seized. It's located on the coast, and the Italian authorities dropped a little highlight reel video of the huge estate.
Nikita Mazepin's one season in Formula One was hilariously disastrous, and it began, fittingly, with him losing control of his car on the third turn of the first race of the season and crashing out after just seconds of racing. At the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Mazepin finished 17th despite only 16 cars finishing the race, as Sebastian Vettel retired late enough to still beat out the Russian. Mazepin's inability to drive a Formula One car was only matched by his grossness as a person, as he's constantly fighting people on and off the track, and he also once filmed himself groping a woman. His whole thing last year was a conspiratorial take that Haas were giving him an inferior car to that of teammate Mick Schumacher, who knows what each of the pedals on the car do, and he continued to stick by that take as everyone in the F1 world kept telling him that he was a big dumb-ass who didn't know how to drive. Here's a nice compilation of Mazepin's former colleagues expressing their confusion and disgust with him. Thank God the sport is now cleansed of Mazepin and Uralkali, and fans can now enjoy the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Presented By Aramco in peace.
