Haas, the American owned team, has been sponsored by Uralkali over the past season. With Uralkali being the title sponsor, Haas ran a livery based largely on the Russian flag's colours owing to the nationality of the sponsor company over the 2021 season, and unveiled a similar livery for its 2022 car earlier this month. Dmitry Mazepin's company, Uralchem, owns a stake at Uralkali, and hence this sponsorship deal also saw his son Nikita Mazepin race for the American team.
Nikita Mazepin driving the Haas VF22 with the Uralkali branding and Russian flag livery
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However, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine and growing tensions amongst the two nations, Haas has decided to drop the Russian livery & Uralkali branding from their car for now, with the paperwork still pending.
On Thursday, the team stated, "Haas F1 Team will present its VF-22 in a plain white livery, minus Uralkali branding, for the third and final day of track running at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Friday, 25 February", and we could see it materialised in today's final day of the first F1 pre-season test at Barcelona.
Nikita Mazepin driving the VF22 with plain white livery
The team has subsequently also removed the Uralkali branding from most places throughout the paddock, and have stated that "No further comment will be made at this time regarding team partner agreements". Haas issued this statement using the logo that they used before the title-sponsorship deal with Uralkali.
With the situation between the two countries worsening, the Russian GP has also officially been cancelled. Sebastian Vettel also stated earlier that he will not race in the Russian GP even if it went ahead this year, while Max Verstappen said that racing in a country at war was "not correct".
Also Read: F1: Russian Grand Prix Cancelled Amidst Ukraine Invasion
With the Russian sponsor seemingly on its way out of the deal with Haas, it would be hard to imagine Nikita Mazepin keeping the seat at the team. However, it would be equally hard to imagine Haas putting a new driver in the car this close to the season. "Not everything depends on us here, what is happening. There are governments involved and I have no power over them. We need to see also the situation, how it develops in Ukraine", Guenther Steiner added, suggesting that future with Mazepin & Uralkali is out of his control.
