Mazepin needs to grow up, says Haas F1 boss Steiner

11 January 2021 - 07:55 By Reuters
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Haas F1 team principal Guenther Steiner said driver Nikita Mazepin has not been let off the hook for causing offence after images of a female passenger being groped in the back of a car appeared on his Instagram feed.
Haas F1 team principal Guenther Steiner said driver Nikita Mazepin has not been let off the hook for causing offence after images of a female passenger being groped in the back of a car appeared on his Instagram feed.
Image: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Russian rookie Nikita Mazepin needs to grow up and has not been let off the hook for causing offence with a video on social media last month, his Haas Formula One team boss Guenther Steiner said on Friday.

The 21-year-old driver, whose father is a fertiliser billionaire, angered the team when images of a female passenger being groped in the back of a car appeared on his Instagram feed.

The footage was swiftly deleted and Mazepin apologised,.

Haas addressed the situation internally, but Steiner said in a column for The Race the matter was “not done and dusted”.

“This is a young man who needs to grow up. For sure we have dealt with this and we will continue to deal with this,” he said.

“We are not saying this was OK and we are not letting him get away with it. We are educating him and will keep educating him for his future. There will be consequences if this or something similar happens again.

“We have put things in place to make sure this doesn’t happen again, This was a clear mistake.”

The hashtag #WeSayNoToMazepin has spread on Twitter since the incident.

Steiner, whose other driver in an all-new lineup is Ferrari great Michael Schumacher’s 21-year-old son Mick, said he was aware of the social media response.

“People have an opinion and that is fine. Internally people also didn’t like what happened, and this is why we continue to take this seriously.

“This is a distraction we don’t want, but sometimes these things happen.”


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