Former Formula 1 driver Nikita Mazepin has succeeded in overturning sanctions which were imposed on him by the European Union two years ago.
Mazepin lost his drive with the Haas F1 team following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. His seat was funded by sponsorship from his father Dmitry’s company Uralkali but Haas cut its ties to the fertiliser manufacturer immediately after the war began.The EU sanctioned Mazepin and his father in March that year. However the Court of Justice of the EU ruled today the sanctions should be lifted on the ex-F1 driver.
The Mazepins were originally sanctioned as they were included among those “supporting and benefitting from the government of the Russian Federation or providing a substantial source of revenue to it, or associated with listed persons or entities.” The younger Mazepin succeeded in overturning the decision by focusing on the latter clause.
The EU’s General Court annuled the measures taken against him today, noting that “the ‘association’ criterion, applied in respect of Mr Nikita Mazepin, covers persons who are, generally speaking, linked by common interests” and that “in accordance with settled case-law, that criterion implies the existence of a link going beyond a family relationship.”
“As regards the alleged sponsoring of Mr Nikita Mazepin by his father, the General Court finds, inter alia, that, since March 2022, Mr Nikita Mazepin has no longer been a driver for the Haas F1 Team. The maintaining acts are therefore based, de facto, solely on the family connection, which is not sufficient to maintain his name on the lists of persons subject to restrictive measures.”
Mazepin’s victory is unlikely to offer him a route back to F1, as he remains subject to a travel ban in Europe and other countries. He has attended some F1 rounds since losing his seat, including last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, and raced in the Asian Le Mans Series.
Russia’s war is believed to have led 6.5 million people to leave Ukraine. Estimates of the number of dead vary widely, but the total casualties are estimated to be around half a million.
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Leroy (@g-funk)
20th March 2024, 12:35
Not only that, but he was only in F1 because of Daddy’s money. If he got into F1 using Daddy’s again, he would clearly have the sanctions reimposed based on the language in the ruling.
Piangina44
20th March 2024, 12:52
I really hope so
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
20th March 2024, 14:48
But now Daddy has a non-sanctioned son who can suddenly become a lot richer and have a lot more assets like huge boats and houses in Europe again.
So yeah, this is going to go well, I’m sure.
MichaelN
20th March 2024, 16:07
Indeed, it’s basically a long and formal way of saying he’s become irrelevant.
Dex
20th March 2024, 13:55
This guy was more Stroll than Stroll, like stronger extract of the same substance.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
20th March 2024, 15:01
I think if there’s a driver worse than sargeant in recent years, it can only be mazepin, and I think stroll is also better than sargeant.
Dex
20th March 2024, 15:41
That’s pretty fair, although Stroll is an F1 veteran (as laughable as that sounds), so Sargeant can still become at least better than him. I hope he won’t get the time though, because F1 is not a driving school, and better talents are waiting.
I imagine that Stroll was pretty relieved to have Mazepin on the grid, who took some of his “fame” and attention. If he loses Sargeant too…
If F1 is as profitable as they say, I don’t understand the need for such pay drivers. Shouldn’t good results pay better? Stroll is a special case, of course, buying his own team and all that… But Sargeant in F1 makes no sense to me. Giving him a season seemed like a questionable choice, giving him his second season makes no sense already. Keeping him beyond this season would look almost insane.
David
20th March 2024, 18:20
is Stroll a pay driver? or just a nepotism hire?
Matteo (@m-bagattini)
21st March 2024, 10:34
Why not both
Cameron
20th March 2024, 18:23
Good results require having a competitive car. Williams has 28 points last year and finished 7th. The team in 6th has 120 points. Even if they had someone who scored twice as many points as Albon in the second seat, it wouldn’t have mattered. You could put Verstappen in the other car and Williams still would have finished 7th. So, if the second driver doesn’t matter much, why not take the money from a pay driver and make a better car?
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
20th March 2024, 20:48
Because you conveniently didn’t mention P8 had 25 points.
Ski (@zapski)
20th March 2024, 14:22
No ruling by the EU can grant him talent though
Vez
20th March 2024, 14:35
By that logic then, shouldn’t all the American, Canadian, Australian, German and British drivers be banned for the illegal invasion of Iraq?? Such hypocrisy.
MichaelN
21st March 2024, 15:58
For all the nonsense, a-historical takes and downright malicious twists coming out of Russia that is one point on which they absolutely have a point. There is a huge double standard in international affairs.
But it’s also important to note that these personal sanctions aren’t applied to all Russians. Russians can still participate in racing, just not under a Russian flag and license. Mazepin’s father is a big player, and was rightly included in personal sanctions. But now that Nikita can only find part time drives in small regional series, he no longer needs to be included said sanctions. He can spin this as a win, but he basically had a court tell him he is irrelevant.
Nick T.
21st March 2024, 23:03
It was a terrible idea, but it definitely wasn’t illegal. The NATO allies also didn’t intentionally target hospitals, schools, etc. or imprison thousands of women to endlessly assault. So, a pretty absurd comparison.
dot_com (@dot_com)
20th March 2024, 16:41
Shock announcement on the 2025 Mercedes seat imminent.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
20th March 2024, 21:01
:D noice!
earthling (@34rthl1ng)
21st March 2024, 17:31
Would be an improvement
Ivan Vinitskyy (@ivan-vinitskyy)
20th March 2024, 18:10
How are these Russians even allowed to be heard when they don’t respect or follow Inrternational law to begin with?
And this ruling is also ridiculous. Links cannot be established because nothing Russia does is transparent. You can’t trust their numbers, what they say, how they operate… This bar of proof has to disappear for companies / individuals / governments who don’t operate transparently themselves. Instead we have this absurdity where everyone knows Russian dirty money got Mazepin Haas drive but we can’t seemingly prove links between two Mazepins!
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
20th March 2024, 22:39
@ivan-vinitskyy Because EU law requires that defendents be able to appeal verdicts against them and to have their cases decided based on the law. That’s what living under the rule of law means – it covers everyone who is expected to follow the law.
The “since March 2022” is significant – it indicates that the court is perfectly aware that before March 2022, there was enough evidence to impose the sanction that existed until this appeal was heard.
I don’t like the idea of Nikita Mazepin being welcomed back into European motorsport, but law is not a like contest.
Ivan Vinitskyy (@ivan-vinitskyy)
20th March 2024, 22:57
@alianora-la-canta I’m saying the law isn’t perfect and it needs adjusting, until then it will be used against the people the law is supposed to protect.
MichaelN
21st March 2024, 16:03
As the ruling notes, there has been no ‘economic or capital’ connection between Nikita and his father since March 2022 because, well, there is nobody for his father to pay to give his son a drive. Nobody wants him. If they want to waste the money on big cars, weird houses and silly boats like others in their circle, that’s not really something that warrants being included on the list of sanctioned individuals. This clique of oligarchs is a problem for the Russian people to solve, not the EU.
Jere (@jerejj)
20th March 2024, 18:17
But he still won’t return because no team simply wants to hire him, to be perfectly realistic.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
20th March 2024, 22:40
@jerejj I think he would – not to F1, where I don’t seriously think he expects to find welcome in any case, but for some of the lower-key professional racing series in sportscars and/or touring cars, similar to those he’s raced in since the F1 days.
isthatglock21
20th March 2024, 20:12
Thankfully he won’t be anywhere near F1. But I agree, not a fan of this whole ‘global police’ policy whereby the yanks have a god given right to enforce whatever they like of citizens of other countries & seize assets as they please. I think Putin is a knob as is the war, but never been a fan of this idea of seizing personal wealth due to perceived associations or mere nationality. It’s all political, if you’re a oligarch who is less high profile than Abrohamvic like Len Blavatnik who is now a Sir & greased the right politicians they leave you alone, despite being on Ukraine’s own list of supporters of Russia lol.
floodo1 (@floodo1)
20th March 2024, 22:21
It’s crazy how the world has turned to the early 1950s and the Red Scare
Also crazy how those in the eastern territories of Ukraine are ignored as if their suffering never happened.
MurasamaRA300 (@murasamara300)
21st March 2024, 7:50
The level of “psyop by media” is on a stratospheric scale these days.
Nothing seems to be about racing anymore.
Denis (@denis1304)
21st March 2024, 13:54
@floodo1
Are you trying to tell us, eastern territories’ minority russian-speaking Ukrainians didn’t start the conflict under the sponsorship of putler in 2014?
https : // en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Donbas
Fred Fedurch
20th March 2024, 22:23
He’s the reigning WOAT. Nothing will change that.
Denis (@denis1304)
21st March 2024, 13:43
It is not war, it is ruSSian INVASION on Ukraine!!!