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In Montmeló, headquarters of the Formula 1 pre-season training sessions, a team is silent and does not appear before the media. It’s Haas, red lantern last year and a mix of conflicting interests. An American team with a Russian patron who supports the entire structure. A combination that was already difficult to digest in its origin now becomes a dilemma. The economic sanctions against Russia announced by the American president Joe Biden endanger the survival of this squad. Today, on the third day of testing, the car will not wear the colors of the Russian flag and its sponsor, Uralkali. He will be dressed entirely in white.
In the Catalan circuit it was planned that he would participate in
the joint press conferences organized by the FIA Gunther Steiner, the Italian engineer responsible for Haas who lives in Mooresville, a town in the state of North Carolina very close to the team’s headquarters in Kannapolis. Steiner refused his assistance to the media because he has a fire in the garage that is beyond his power to manage.
Haas is a team owned by motor businessman Gene Haas, present in F1 since 2016, who last year found his salvation in a Russian driver, Nikita Mazepin, with a billionaire father. Dimitry Mazepin, a businessman close to Putin with whom he met on January 13, is the largest shareholder of Uralkali, a fertilizer company that introduced Nikita Mazepin to Formula 1 as a paid driver at Haas. For 25 million sponsorship, Mazepin became a passenger in F1.
The Russian, without a pedigree in the lower categories that endorsed the jump to the highest category, had a very difficult debut. In his first season he starred in numerous runway exits, incidents and pranks on the networks. This year he repeats the line-up with Mick Schumacher because his father maintains the financing of Uralkali.
Haas now finds himself with a problem that is difficult to solve. The Announced economic sanctions reach Uralkali. Haas has eliminated the Russian company on its social networks and today it is wearing white, although the economic faucet can liquidate the team.
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