“I’m not proud of it”- Nikita Mazepin opens about his controversy for first time

“I’m not proud of it”- Nikita Mazepin, for the first time, talks about the controversy he was involved which nearly destroyed his F1 career.

Nikita Mazepin faced massive public outrage for his controversy, where he was allegedly seen touching a woman inappropriately in a car. On any normal day, that would have resulted in someone’s sacking.

However, Haas let him go with a “warning”, and the car company and the Russian driver claims that he has learnt a lot from the incident, as he opens up about it for the first time to non-Russian media.

“First of all, it’s very important to say that my actions in December about the whole incident were incorrect,” Mazepin said. “I do take the full responsibility for it,” said Mazepin to ESPN.

“It was a very big learning experience, and I can confidently say that I’m much further in my knowledge on this kind of matter than I used to be, so there’s a small bit of positivity there.”

Race track performances will redeem me.

Mazepin claims that he is not proud of what he did, and he would try to redeem himself for his actions in the future, especially with his actions on the track.

“I’m not proud of it. It’s important to progress. The people who are with me over the past 21 years know who I am. It’s challenging to be fake for people, and I’m far from that.

“I will be myself outside of the track like I’ve been. I’ve had my ups and my lows, but that’s part of life. I think racing should do speaking, mostly.

“I believe I’m a very good racer on the track; I believe I’m a fast racer. I’m actually looking forward to the challenge of showing people who might not like me at the moment that I have great racing skills, that hopefully changes the perception of me.”

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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