2021 F1 Driver ThreadFormula 1 

Surely that's the easiest part?

I think that a better-late-than-never affirmative action right now from Haas would boost their credibility enormously. They could blame legal pressure from a billionaire before doing a sink or swim Right Thing. Sponsors would be onto that like a tramp on chips.
Haas has credibility? That's a ludicrous claim. They lost it ages ago after the Rich Energy debacle. They don't really have an image to uphold, so I honestly don't care what Mazepin does off track. I'm not outraged in the slightest.
 
Just remember folks:

Daniel Abt lost his ride asap.... for not playing a video game

Mazepin sexually harrasses a woman? Nah he keeps his ride without any consequences.
 
I think Haas is probably on their last legs as a team on the grid anyway, despite how you think about Grosjean and Magnussen they where both Paid drivers when with Haas, where as now both drivers are paying, even if Mick Schumacher might be an upgrade.

The team has been going backwards for a few years now, best case scenario is someone buys this basket case of a team and changes everything from the ground up.
 
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Haas without Mazepin's money were/are done as it currently stands. That's the simple reality of it at the moment, the only way they were going to sack him is if they got money elsewhere, which evidently wasn't possible.

From the very outset it was clear to me they were going to go for the Winchester approach to this..

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and it will probably work. Until he inevitably does something else.
 
The team has been going backwards for a few years now
This is primarily Ferrari's fault. Don't forget that Ferrari is the team that forgot how to make a competitive race car.

That said, I want to know what Gene Haas's input has been on the Mazepin decision. They have to know this is PR suicide but this smacks of Russian money yet again. American team, Russian money, hmm I'm sensing a trend.
 
Just remember folks:

Daniel Abt lost his ride asap.... for not playing a video game

Mazepin sexually harrasses a woman? Nah he keeps his ride without any consequences.

Chalk and cheese.

You don't need to bring in a completely different incident to diminish the situation at hand. That's a reductive argument.
 
The problem here isn't that Mazepin still has his seat, it's the fact that there appears to be no repurcussions at all.

We have the apologies deleted, and there is no word on what Mazepin has been warned about, to what scale it was and whether he's had any punishments. There's been nothing internal or external saying what ramifications Mazepin is having to deal with. If I were Haas, I'd bump up the price of his drive by about 5 million and give him an ultimatum that says "do anything like that again and we can fire you, but you still have to pay the full price for the year of the drive".

But Haas need to get Mazepin to do something serious and public showing true remorse or neither party will have a hope of escaping this publicity black hole.

Formula 1 and the FIA should use this time to step in and revoke Mazepin's superlicense if they're serious about #WeRaceAsOne. However we know they're not because we're still going to Saudi Arabia...
 
Just remember folks:

Daniel Abt lost his ride asap.... for not playing a video game

Mazepin sexually harrasses a woman? Nah he keeps his ride without any consequences.

Correction.

Daniel Abt lost his ride for breaching his teams contractual terms and obligations to sponsors, and deceiving the competition by hiring someone to take his place without prior permission or knowledge for the series. Wasnt just for not playing a video game.

With the Mazepin thing, in any other walk of life it would amount to gross misconduct. I agree 100% with @Jimlaad43 as well in that the lack of repercussions are the biggest insult in all of this. I would love to think F1/FIA would get involved and make Haas' decision for them because at the moment it's hurting their image, arguably more than the Saudi Arabia race at this time. No super license, no race seat, and it falls well within their remit to do so.

Haas'money is clearly an issue but, with extra input from Ferrari, a driver like Fittipaldi ro bring in SOME sponsors and cash, the budget cap and the extra wind tunnel running they'll get, would still stand them in good stead to move uo the grid for a bigger payout ahead of 2022.

I feel sorry for the Haas social media reps, every post they do from now on is going to be flooded with #SayNoToMazepin. Even sadder to think it'll have no impact.
 
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Seems a bit strange to think Haas is on their last legs? I saw on a big manufacturer forum, that it was reported that Ferrari is setting up a hub for Haas in Maranello & a couple people will switch over to Haas (although Binotto said that's as far as their relationship goes, and no one from Haas will be allowed into Ferrari areas).

Oddly enough, that same forum is a bit split, thinking Mazepin's fiasco is the "young culture of SJ fake outrage" and it was just a boyfriend/girlfriend thing that shouldn't have been shared on social media. Guess it's not surprising to see a bunch of Ferrari owners playing right into the "old rich white dudes" stereotype.
 
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Seems a bit strange to think Haas is on their last legs? I saw on a big manufacturer forum, that it was reported that Ferrari is setting up a hub for Haas in Maranello & a couple people will switch over to Haas (although Binotto said that's as far as their relationship goes, and no one from Haas will be allowed into Ferrari areas).

Oddly enough, that same forum is a bit split, thinking Mazepin's fiasco is the "young culture of SJ fake outrage" and it was just a boyfriend/girlfriend thing that shouldn't have been shared on social media. Guess it's not surprising to see a bunch of Ferrari owners playing right into the "old rich white dudes" stereotype.

Sounds like that forum very much isn't worth visiting any time soon. Anyone who tries to justify his actions is very much part of the problem.

The technical switch for Haas and Ferrari is helping Ferrari move staff around into the budget cut phase of F1. No information sharing or anything just purely support. Some Ferrari team members have also joined Haas on a kind of loan deal including Ferraris head of chassis engineering. It's basically acting as a way to not lay off staff with the new budget restrictions.
 
Sounds like that forum very much isn't worth visiting any time soon. Anyone who tries to justify his actions is very much part of the problem.
Should say the model-specific forums are alright since the staff there run a very tight ship, so discussions have to stay strictly on the topic of the cars. However, since all opinions are still allowed as long as they follow the rules, it doesn't take much for those guys to reveal their broader views when 1 topic merges with another. Turning point for me was seeing a user claim Lewis should remain quiet on topics he has partial knowledge of, when the topic was as a black man & BLM. I pretty much got a clearer conclusion of why the same few folks there always have a ridiculous anti-Lewis argument on hand for any F1-topic, & it no longer seemed just b/c Lewis was knocking on the door of Schumacher with a rival manufacturer. Mods moved all further discussion to the politic subforum there, but you have to be subscribed as a paying member, of which I'm thankfully not; I'm not sure I could comprehend their political approaches if they were anywhere as silly as "Merc. purposely sabotaging Russell for Lewis"....
 
Call it an educated guess, but part of me is staring to think that Haas hired Nikita Mazepin because Gene Haas wants to sell the team to Nikita's father Dmitri Mazepin. I had felt that after the Rich Energy controversy Haas were already on thin ice in F1 as an entrant going forward, so with the worldwide CoVid-19 pandemic causing economic problems everywhere just accelerated the process.
 
Seems a bit strange to think Haas is on their last legs?

Well there is nothing special about them in regards to the fact if you enter F1 in recent years and don't become successful, you are soon in trouble. It's not like the 70s and 80s where any team could turn up for a few seasons at little cost, operating out of the back of a van. They were reported to be in poor financial standings before the pandemic, and like everything else, that only made it worse.

Earlier this year they were blunt in saying they didn't know if they'd make it to 2021 - https://www.autoweek.com/racing/for...-year-is-the-least-of-our-problems-right-now/

Mazepin's money is the main thing propping them up and making that happen. Gene Haas isn't an idiot, as soon as he decides being in F1 is of no benefit, he'll pull the plug, and without the Mazepin money, that would surely be very soon.
 
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Well there is nothing special about them in regards to the fact if you enter F1 in recent years and don't become successful, you are soon in trouble. It's not like the 70s and 80s where any team could turn up for a few seasons at little cost, operating out of the back of a van. They were reported to be in poor financial standings before the pandemic, and like everything else, that only made it worse.

Earlier this year they were blunt in saying they didn't know if they'd make it to 2021 - https://www.autoweek.com/racing/for...-year-is-the-least-of-our-problems-right-now/

Mazepin's money is the main thing propping them up and making that happen. Gene Haas isn't an idiot, as soon as he decides being in F1 is of no benefit, he'll pull the plug, and without the Mazepin money, that would surely be very soon.
I understand that. But, if Ferrari is investing efforts to build a hub near their factory for Haas, surely that means Ferrari sees them sticking around for a while?

Perhaps I'm just missing a detail that Ferrari knows something behind the scenes about Haas' future, maybe as King above you said with Mazepin's family looking to buy.
 
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I understand that. But, if Ferrari is investing efforts to build a hub near their factory for Haas, surely that means Ferrari sees them sticking around for a while?

Perhaps I'm just missing a detail that Ferrari knows something behind the scenes about Haas' future, maybe as King above you said with Mazepin's family looking to buy.

That's just down to the required downsizing Ferrari for the upcoming budget cap. Instead of just letting a bunch of people go, they're essentially keeping them on but now working for Haas. Obviously we don't know the financial situation with the deal but I imagine it's mutually beneficial in some way.

Binotto added that he felt much more comfortable moving staff across to Haas, than having to let them go completely so they can get snapped up by other teams.

"If I may choose and I have to reduce my organisation, I'm certainly more happy to know that those guys are joining the Haas team and reinforcing them, instead of being simply on the market and available to other teams.

"That's certainly the way we are looking at the collaborations."

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/154327/ferrari-to-set-up-haas-hub-f1-facility-at-maranello

If Haas do disappear, then obviously those people will simply have to find new employment.
 
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That's just down to the required downsizing Ferrari for the upcoming budget cap. Instead of just letting a bunch of people go, they're essentially keeping them on but now working for Haas. Obviously we don't know the financial situation with the deal but I imagine it's mutually beneficial in some way.



https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/154327/ferrari-to-set-up-haas-hub-f1-facility-at-maranello

If Haas do disappear, then obviously those people will simply have to find new employment.
Guess I'm just looking at this incorrectly. I understood Magpie's point that Ferrari was only sending staff to Haas to cut their budget, but I didn't think that explained why Ferrari would be setting up a hub for Haas near the factory. Looking at your source compared to the one I saw, looks as if the "hub" is just Ferrari's way of keeping those employees nearby.
 
looks as if the "hub" is just Ferrari's way of keeping those employees nearby.

Yep, that's how I understand it. The "Hub" is basically just a section of offices in Maranello with a divider across the room. Not literally obviously, but in the sense that the cost setting it up is next to zero.
 
Just remember folks:

Daniel Abt lost his ride asap.... for not playing a video game

Mazepin sexually harrasses a woman? Nah he keeps his ride without any consequences.
Abt lsot his drive for being mediocre, his stunt was the final nail in the coffin.
 
I understand that. But, if Ferrari is investing efforts to build a hub near their factory for Haas, surely that means Ferrari sees them sticking around for a while?

It looks like European travel restrictions are going to remain in place for some time, particularly if infection rates of new strains do indeed overtake the speed of vaccination programs. Italy has been applying particularly strict travel rules, could be that this keeps staff movements within those for the forseeable.
 
Another possibility is that Ferrari is stuck with a fixed number of employees due to national laws, and some of those are surplus due to restrictions on the F1 budget. A new nearby facility for Haas makes sense, as would an Indy car program.
 
I'd rather see a PER VER on the podium than a pervert at the back of the grid...
 
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