F1 drivers often use their star status as a platform to speak for LGBTQ+ rights, and to make the world a better place for them. However, when George Russell was talking to his fans on a live session back in 202, Nikita Mazepin felt it would be funny to make homophobic jokes aimed at the current Mercedes driver.
Mazepin spent two years in F1, which certainly felt a lot longer to some fans, because of his habit of meddling in controversies. From on-track incidents to off-track verbal attacks, Mazepin was always in the spotlight because of all the wrong reasons. Nevertheless, even someone as unruly as Mazepin should probably have chosen a different topic to joke about when Russell was talking on Instagram Live three years ago.
Russell was interacting with his fans on social media. He was answering questions related to his life at then-team Williams, and also about other topics. Soon, the live session took an ugly turn when fans noticed Mazepin make a disgraceful remark in the comments section.
Nikita Mazepin jokingly refers to George Russell as part of the LGBTQ+ community
Being a part of the LGBTQ+ community isn’t something that people should hide from the world. This is something almost all athletes, celebrities, and even top companies preach today. To highlight the social stigma related to the community and speak out against it, Pride Month is celebrated every June.
happy pride month pic.twitter.com/6NwiCRcf3A
— m (@81PIASTRI) June 1, 2023
For Mazepin, however, the idea of LGBTQ+ rights seemed very different. Under Russell’s Instagram Live, the Russian driver wrote, “I have a secret about you mate that people might call a coming out.”
This comment was made in extremely poor taste, and as expected, led to a huge backlash aimed toward the former Haas driver.
Fans slandered Mazepin for disrespecting Russell
Russell is one of the most beloved drivers in F1. The same, however, cannot be said about Mazepin. Ever since he started climbing the junior Formula ranks, his reputation of being unruly, disrespectful and downright arrogant always made a huge chunk of the F1 fanbase hate him.
Back in 2020, a few months after the incident, a Twitter account going by the name Certified Conehead posted a thread on Twitter. It consisted of all the controversies Mazepin was directly involved in over the years. One of the tweets talked about Mazepin’s homophobic abuse towards Russell:
George Russell went live on Instagram a few months back, Mazepin thought it’d be funny to be homophobic towards him. Although no one knows if George is in the LGBT community, it doesn’t matter, but a comment like this could out him and put him in serious risk in…
— certified conhead (@willowkyu) December 9, 2020
“George Russell went live on Instagram a few months back. Mazepin thought it’d be funny to be homophobic towards him. Although no one knows if George is in the LGBT community, it doesn’t matter.”
At a time when people are taking mental health extremely seriously, an F1 driver attacking a fellow competitor with homophobic abuse was certainly a disturbing scene for fans to witness.
