Biography of Formula 1 driver Nikita Mazepin

The Moscow native started competing in karting in early 2010, making his way to the CIK-FIA Karting Championship in 2014 where he finished second behind McLaren starlet Lando Norris. That prompted a move to Formula Renault and Formula Toyota series a year later, though Mazepin delivered a mixed bag of results.

From there the Russian landed in the Formula 3 European Championship, driving for Hitech Grand Prix in 2016. Results were slow to arrive with Mazepin amassing just four points-scoring finishes, the lowest for a driver that competed at every race. The lessons learned that season served the youngster well the following year, as he went from 10 to 108 points while recording three podium finishes.

The GP3 Series came calling in 2018 with Mazepin lining up for the ART Grand Prix team alongside Callum Illott, Jake Hughes and eventual champion Anthoine Hubert. While the Russian finished second in the standings, 16 points behind the Frenchman, he did score four wins, the most of any driver that year as ART defended the teams’ championship.

A step up to Formula 2 proved complicated despite ART Grand Prix finishing third in the teams’ championship. While teammate Nyck de Vries dominated proceedings en route to a drivers’ championship over current Williams man Nicholas Latifi, Mazepin struggled with his new surroundings. Points proved hard to come by for the Russian as he mustered just 11, a far cry from the 266 amassed by De Vries.

Rise to Formula 1

Much like his previous stops, Mazepin showed marked improvement in his second season with the team, notching two victories and six podiums to finish fifth in the final standings, 51 points behind champion and 2021 teammate Mick Schumacher.

Mazepin will be hoping he adapts to his new surroundings more quickly than his recent past suggests as he looks to shake off suggestions he is a pay driver due to a €20 million payment made by his father Dmitry’s company Uralkali to Haas as part of his move to the team.