Haas’s title sponsor Uralkali threatened to pull its backing from the team during the 2021 Formula 1 season in an internal row over Nikita Mazepin’s car.
The new series of Netflix’s Drive To Survive, which is due to arrive next week, reveals how Mazepin’s father Dmitry, the owner of Uralkali, warned the team he would pull their backing if they did not switch chassis between his son and team mate Mick Schumacher.
Mazepin and his father began to raise doubts over the parity between his chassis and Schumacher’s grew over the opening races of the season. Mazepin was consistently out-qualified by his team mate and finished behind him.
“It’s the same car,” Haas team principal Guenther Steiner told his driver at one point. “As much as you believe it’s not, it’s the same car.”
However the Mazepin camp remained unconvinced. In an exchange with team adviser Jesper Carlsen at the Spanish Grand Prix, Dmitry Mazepin warned: “If it doesn’t change, I will send an official…