Sympathy for the Racing Devil
Russia's only active F1 driver sucks, but I do feel *slightly* bad for him this week.
Russian driver Nikita Mazepin earned a Formula One seat in 2021 through his hard work, dedication and rich daddy. With one season under his belt, what surprised me is that he was so freaking slow.
There have been other famously reckless drivers who race in F1 thanks in no small part to the sponsorship money they brought to their teams, but at least they showed some actual talent when they weren’t wrecking cars. PDVSA-backed Pastor Maldonado actually won a race for Williams long after that once-great team had gone into decline, and the late Andrea de Cesaris, who came with lots of Marlboro sponsorship money because of family connections to Philip Morris, actually wrung some incredible performances out of sub-par machinery.
I expected Mazepin to be one of these fast but crash-prone rich kids in F1, but nope: he had the “crash-prone” part down, but while the Haas car was so hopeless that even Michael Schumacher in his prime couldn’t have won races in it, Mazepin couldn’t keep up with teammate Mick Schumacher.
You know your season hasn’t gone well when people have put together YouTube compilations of you crashing and other drivers giving you the middle finger. And I haven’t even mentioned his getting grabby with women and posting it on social media.
But when your dad got rich in the Russian fertilizer business and there are small racing teams desperate for sponsorship, you can still get a ride. And they’ll even paint the cars in the color of the Russian flag for you.
After this week, well, you can guess what people are saying in the comment section on Hass F1 Team’s social media posts:
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