Nikita Mazepin asserts that the sudden end to his Formula 1 career resulted in a financial hit of "several million dollars."
The Russian, supported by his father's firm Uralkali, was dropped by Haas at the onset of the Ukraine conflict and barred from competing elsewhere after being explicitly listed in European Union sanctions.
At 26, Mazepin fought the sanctions legally—and won. "According to European constitutional law, you can't just sanction a person," he told sports.ru. "The wording said that I was connected to my father's business activities."
His father, Dmitry Mazepin, has reported ties to Vladimir Putin.
"My father is a successful entrepreneur who started a business from scratch—a major taxpayer in Russia," Nikita maintained.
"The (Russian) state, in their (Europe's) opinion, uses tax revenues to finance actions punishable by the European Union. But in two and a half years we have explained that there is me on one hand and my father on the other.
"We are different individuals, with nothing in common in business. And the existence of family ties does not allow the European courts to impose sanctions on me. That's why they were lifted."
Mazepin concedes his odds of re-entering F1 are slim. So, what was the monetary damage?
"I lost a long-term contract with Haas," he elaborated. "It contained quite a few sums that would have multiplied every year. I think it would have been several million dollars.
"Also, I had certain European property that I lost when the assets were frozen and I did not get it back after they were unfrozen."
Reports suggest one such loss was an Italian villa.
