Mazepin teases racing return but “I can’t tell you about it…”

The ex-F1 driver was sacked by Haas ahead of the 2022 season due to the country of his birth, Russia, invading Ukraine. His billionaire father Dmitry Mazepin ran Uralkali, previously Haas’ title sponsor until they were also dropped.

Mazepin has spent the past year in Russia, and has competed in the Silk Way Rally, but is working on a route back into the big leagues.

"I did that out of pleasure and fortunately the pleasure led to victory," Mazepin said to Tass. 

"But I don't see myself as a professional rally driver. Silk Way is a wonderful competition but for a non-rally driver to really prepare, you'd have to put everything else aside.

"Next year I will also compete for myself in a new discipline outside of our country, but so far there are no signatures. So I can't tell you about it. 

“There is the desire, of course, to continue to compete in motorsport. My goal is to return to Formula 1 so that is the direction I will work in."

• Drive to Survive season 5 release date: Netflix F1 series confirms its return!

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner recently defended the decision to ditch Mazepin due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, telling Speedcafe: “We couldn’t take any other decision after the invasion of Ukraine. I think looking back, I think we did the right thing. But no, it didn’t have any impact [financially].

“It certainly impacted the beginning [of the season]. There was a lot of work to be done to get back to where we wanted to be. But otherwise, once we got racing in Bahrain, you see how fast life in F1 is.

“There was never looking back, just let’s get the best out of it. We’ve got an opportunity. It was a challenge. But the challenge gave us an opportunity. Let’s focus on that and let’s keep going.”