FORMULA ONE’S governing body, the FIA, have failed to follow other sports in taking decisive action against Russian athletes.
F1 was swift to act by cancelling the Russian GP following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
But, somewhat staggeringly, the FIA have decided to allow Russian and Belarusian drivers to continue to drive.
New president Mohammed Ben Sulayem presented the verdict from an extraordinary meeting of the World Motor Sport Council held on Tuesday.
It means controversial Haas driver, Nikita Mazepin, will be allowed to continue to drive in F1 – assuming he is retained by his team.
Mazepin – son of billionaire oligarch Dmitry who has ties to Putin – will not technically be representing Russia and will race under an “FIA flag”.
Ben Sulayem said: “The FIA is watching the developments in Ukraine with sadness and shock and I hope for a swift and peaceful resolution to the present situation.
“We condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine and our thoughts are with all those suffering as a result of the events in Ukraine.”
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A statement from the FIA confirmed that no competitions would take place in Russia and Belarus, until further notice and that flags, symbols or anthems associated with those countries would be used.
Ben Sulayem’s failure to take strict action on Russian drivers will upset Leonid Kostyuchenko, the President of the Federation Automobile d’Ukraine, who had urged the FIA to intervene.
Haas will now decide on whether to stick with error-prone Mazepin, whose father also part-owns Russian fertiliser company Uralkali, the F1 team’s sponsor.
Dmitry is close to President Putin and the two met only last month.
He is believed to be at risk of being targeted by the sanctions designed to paralyse the Russian economy.
Mazepin, 22, already has one of the most controversial F1 racing careers, which was almost terminated before he’d even done a single race.
In December 2020, he posted an Instagram story in which he appeared to inappropriately grope a woman’s breasts.
The Haas team rebuked Mazepin’s actions and called the video “abhorrent” and while the Russian later apologised, he subsequently deleted it from social media.
The controversy led to the hashtag “#WeSayNoToMazepin” trending on Twitter with fans calling on Haas to cancel his contract.
And in 2016, Mazepin was banned for a race for hitting fellow racer Callum Ilott twice in the face after the Brit accidentally blocked him during a practice session.
Meanwhile, fellow Russian, former Red Bull driver Daniil Kvyat, had earlier pleaded with the FIA not to ban Russian drivers.
Kvyat wrote on social media calling for a peaceful end to the conflict in Ukraine but stopped short of condemning the actions of Putin.
Referring to the war as the “situation in Ukraine”, Kvyat also said it was “unfair” that Russian athletes were being targeted.
Source: Motorsport - thesun.co.uk
