Nikita Mazepin teases racing return and dreams of F1 comeback but says “I can’t tell you about” secret new deal

The ex-F1 driver 🐼was sacked by Haas ahead of the 2022 season due to the country of his birth, Russia, invading Ukraine. His billionaire father Dmitry Mazep🍰in ran Uralkali, previously Haas’ title sponsor until they were also dropped.
Mazepin has spen♐t the past year in Russia, and has competed in the Silk Way Rally, but is working on a route back into the big leagues.
"I did that out of pleasure and fortunately the pleasure led to vic💃tory," Mazepin said to .
"But I don't see myself as a pro𒊎fessional 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 abou✅t it.
“There is the desire, of course, to continue to compete in motorsport. My goal is to re🥃turn to Formula 1 so that is the directꦫion I will work in."

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner recently defended the decision to ditch Mazepin due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, telling : “We couldn’t take any other decision after the invasion of Ukraine. I think looking back, I think we did the rꦯight thing. But no, it didn’t have any impact [financially].
“It certainlඣy impacted the beginning [of the season]. There was a lot of work to be done to get back to where we wanted to be. But otherwise, once we got racing in Bahrain, you see how fast life in F1 i🅠s.
“There was never looking back, just let’s get the best out of it. We’ve got an opportunity. It was a challenge. But the challenge gave us an opportunity. Let’s focus on tha𝔍t and let꧒’s keep going.”

James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade co💮vering everything fro🀅m American sports, to football, to F1.