Russia’s invasion of Ukraine meant trouble for driver Nikita Mazepin’s immediate involvement in F1, with Haas swiftly ending its deal with former title sponsors Uralkali.
The team then had no compulsion to field Nikita, who was in many ways a pay driver owing to the fact that Uralkali was his father Dmitry Mazepin‘s company.
While one would expect things couldn’t get much worse for Nikita (who was strangely captured performing a new role) following his F1 exit, news has now surfaced that his father has gone missing.
Italian authorities are believed to be on the lookout for the Russian businessman who has disappeared along with two of his yachts which were previously seized.
While Dmitry has gone missing, his two yachts have conspicuously disappeared one after the other.
“An investigation led by Olbia’s finance police found that the first vessel, said to be worth between €700,000 and €1m [between $760,000 to $1.09 million], left Olbia in June and made a stopover at the small port of Bizerte in Tunisia,” The Guardian reported.
“The second yacht is known to have left Olbia for Savona, a port in the northern Italian region of Liguria, before heading to Turkey. The current whereabouts of the yachts and their owner is unknown.”
Nikita dreams of F1 return
Nikita Mazepin may not have been the greatest driver to feature in F1, rather he was perhaps one of the most trolled racers in recent times.
However, he was far from pleased with the manner in which Haas dispensed of his services, feeling he deserved better treatment.
Speaking in an interview earlier this year, Nikita expressed his disappointment at how things transpired.
“I did that [the Silky Way Rally] out of pleasure and fortunately, the pleasure led to victory. But I don’t see myself as a professional rally driver.
“Silk Way is a wonderful competition, but for a non-rally driver to really prepare, you’d have to put everything else aside.”
“Next year I will also compete for myself in a new discipline outside of our country, but so far there are no signatures.
“So I can’t tell you about it. There is the desire, of course, to continue to compete in motorsport. My goal is to return to Formula 1, so that is the direction I will work in.”
As far as his return to F1 is concerned, chances look slim given the competition for each seat in the championship. As for his father, troubles might amplify in the coming days as Italian authorities go into crackdown mode.
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