F1: After Nikita Mazepin’s decision, a former Haas sponsor takes a parting shot

After it was established that incoming driver Nikita Mazepin would not be cut for the 2021 Formula 1 season, former Haas sponsor Jack & Jones distanced themselves from the team and incoming driver. With Kevin Magnussen due to leave Haas after the 2020 Formula 1 season, his fourth consecutive season with the sport’s lone American team, Haas was always going to lose one of their sponsors, Jack & Jones. Jack & Jones is a menswear brand owned by Bestseller A/S, a clothing company based in Magnussen’s home Denmark. In October, it was confirmed that neither Magnussen nor teammate Romain Grosjean, who had raced for Haas since 2016, would be returning to the team in 2021. The two would be replaced by Formula 2 champion Mick Schumacher and fellow Formula 2 driver Nikita Mazepin, it was subsequently announced. Mazepin, whose racing career is supported by his billionaire father Dmitry, has a history of on- and an off behavior problems. So when he posted a video on his Instagram story of himself reaching for a woman’s shirt and grabbing her breasts, there were cries for Haas to fire the 21-year-old Russian, who called the video “abhorrent.” The team noted that they would deal with the matter internally, which they did. Guenther Steiner, the team’s principal, even declared that the public “will never know what was dealt with, and what the circumstances are,” because he could keep it private.

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It would be difficult to keep a firing private, and it was eventually revealed that Mazepin would not be fired before the start of the season. After this was confirmed, Jack & Jones took a parting shot a Haas and Mazepin, directed at the team’s decision to keep the rookie on the team.