Haas F1 condemns new driver Nikita Mazepin for Instagram groping video

LONDON — The Haas Formulation A person team condemned new driver Nikita Mazepin for “abhorrent” behavior on Wednesday after the young Russian posted and then deleted a video clip exhibiting a feminine passenger currently being groped in a car.

The photos, in an Instagram tale, ongoing to flow into elsewhere on social media after their removal.

“Haas F1 team does not condone the behavior of Nikita Mazepin in the video clip lately posted on his social media,” the U.S.-owned team reported in a statement from Abu Dhabi, where they are preparing for the final race of the season.

“Furthermore, the very actuality that the video clip was posted on social media is also abhorrent to Haas F1 team,” it extra, expressing the issue was currently being dealt with internally.

Mazepin, son of a billionaire who produced his fortune in fertilizer, apologized on Twitter for his “inappropriate behavior” and the actuality that the video clip was posted.

“I am sorry for the offense I have rightly caused and to the embarrassment I have brought to Haas F1 team,” extra the 21-12 months-aged.

“I have to maintain myself to a higher regular as a Formulation A person driver and I acknowledge I have allow myself and quite a few men and women down. I guarantee I will understand from this.”

The Russian was declared past week as a Haas driver for 2021 along with Mick Schumacher, son of seven-occasions world champion Michael.

When Schumacher won the Formulation Two title in Bahrain at the weekend, Mazepin was handed two penalties for forcing a person rival off observe and blocking one more. He finished the F2 season in fifth spot all round, sufficient to attain an F1 superlicense.

He also stood out for accruing eleven penalty factors in the course of the campaign, a person small of triggering a race ban.

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner reported that the penalties have been a part of learning but, “For certain we have got our work cut out.

“These factors take place when your brain goes absent.”