Nikita Mazepin Tag

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer With Russia invading Ukraine causing a worldwide uproar, Haas F1 Team announced Saturday they’ll be cutting ties with Russian sponsor Uralkali and Russian driver Nikita Mazepin effective immediately. Over a week ago, the American-based team tested in Barcelona with the fully branded Russian colored livery and sponsor. Once the invasion began, all there was left was a plain white car with Haas and 1&1 being the only sponsors in the Ferrari-powered car. Haas F1 issued the following statement regarding its termination with Uralkali and Mazepin: “AsRead More

By FIA Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen will go to the final race of the 2021 FIA Formula One World Championship level on points after the Mercedes driver beat the Red Bull driver to the top spot of the podium at the end in a hugely dramatic Saudi Arabian Grand Prix that featured two re-starts, one Safety Car period, numerous Virtual Safety Cars and a controversial collision that saw Hamilton run into the back of Verstappen’s car when the Red Bull driver tried to hand the lead to the BritonRead More

By FIA Formula 1 Championship leader Max Verstappen went quickest in final practice for the French Grand Prix beating Mercedes Valtteri Bottas by 0.747s while the Red Bull driver’s chief title rival Lewis Hamilton finished almost a second off the Dutchman’s pace and fifth place. The opening 10 miniutes of the session were quite, with no cars on track, but eventually the Haas cars of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin broke the silence and the session got properly underway. Alpine’s Fernando Alonso set the pace in the opening stages ofRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Haas F1 Team confirmed Tuesday that Formula 2 racer Nikita Mazepin will be one of the new drivers on the 2021 Formula One grid. Mazepin has made most of his opportunity with Hitech Grand Prix this season, scoring two F2 victories. Both being feature races at Silverstone and Mugello along with four additional podium finishes. He’ll become the fourth-ever Russian to compete in the sport’s highest level and pending on Daniil Kvyat’s status at AlphaTauri, he might be the only one active in 2021. ForRead More

By FIA Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas went quickest on the second and final day of Formula 1’s first in-season test, edging Ferrari’s Antonio Giovinazzi by six hundredths of a second. The Finn set his quickest time of the day shortly before lunchtime, lapping the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in a time of 1:16.904. The lap, delivered on supersoft Pirelli tyres, capped a period in which he had traded fastest laps with Giovinazzi, though the Ferrari driver’s times were set on hypersoft tyres, two steps further along the softness scale of Pirelli’s compounds.Read More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Sahara Force India Formula 1 Team will hand the keys over to three junior drivers for the upcoming in-season test in Barcelona on May 15-16. The Silverstone-based squad will feature reserve driver Nicholas Latifi and development pilot Nikita Mazepin in one car. Mercedes junior driver George Russell will be in a second car and will provide help for Pirelli in part for tire development. The run will be Latifi’s first outing in the VJM11 after being pulled out of preseason testing in February due to illness.Read More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor The 2018 Formula One season is finally upon us. After the long winter break, all 10 teams hit the track this morning at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain. While the full picture of who is competitive, who has got it right, and who has got it wrong won’t fully form till the end of testing next week, there are meaningful things we can gleam just from breaking down the first day’s running. The biggest caveat in doing so are two variables that made today’s runningRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Kimi Raikkonen topped the time sheets for Ferrari on the first day of Pirelli’s Abu Dhabi tire test, where all 10 Formula One teams are evaluating the prospective 2018 tire compounds. The Finn clocked an impressive 1:37.768 on Pirelli’s new hypersoft compound, just three tenths ahead of Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull, and nearly a second ahead of World Champion Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton, who qualified and finished second behind team mate Valtteri Bottas on Sunday, hailed Pirelli’s hypersoft tires as the best tire Pirelli has made sinceRead More

The final day of testing in Budapest was a tale of a remarkable return and an impressive arrival, as Robert Kubica returned to F1 testing for the first time in six years to set the day’s fourth fastest time, while 17-year-old Lando Norris finished in second place, just two tenths of a second behind pacesetter Sebastian Vettel. Driving for Renault, Kubica, who had not driven a contemporary F1 car since suffering serious arm injuries in a 2011 rallying accident, set a best time of 1m18.572s to finish fourth on theRead More

FIA Formula 2 Championship leader Charles Leclerc edged McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne to top the timesheet on day one of the final in-season test of the 2017 Formula One campaign. Ferrari Academy driver Leclerc set a time of 1:17.746 in the closing moments of the session to beat Vandoorne’s best time by 0.088s. However, while the McLaren driver used purple-banded ultrasoft tyres to set his personal best, Leclerc’s P1 time came on soft compound Pirelli rubber. Vandoorne had run quicker than the Ferrari driver in the morning session but the afternoon was notRead More