Haas confirmed on Saturday morning that it had sackꦿed Mazepin and also split from title sponsor Uralkali -💦 a Russian chemicals company - with immediate effect as a result of Russia's🧔 invasion of Ukraine.

Uralkali is co-owned by Mazepin’s billionaire father Dmitry, who has close ties ﷽to Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

Haas had come under intense pressure to act following a wave of sanctions from worldwide sporting bodies to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes✅ from competing🙈 in international events. 

F1’s governing body, the FIA, outlined that Russian dri𒈔vers would be required to sign a document forbidding him from supporting Putin’s war on Ukraine in order to race. 

Responding to Haas’ decision to terminate his contract, Mazepin insisted he would have accepted the FIA’s terms♍ to continu🀅e in F1 this season. 

“I am very disappointedꦡ to hear that my F1 contract has been te🌊rminated,” wrote Mazepin. 

“While I understand the difficulties, the ruling from [the] FIA pl🔯us my ongoing willingness to accept the conditions proposed in orde💮r to continue were completely ignored and no process was followed in this unilateral step.

“To those who have tried to uꦰnderstand, my eternal thanks. I have treasured my time in F1 and genuinely hope ♊we can all be together again in better times. I will have more to say in the coming days.”

The 23-year-old lea🅷ves F1 after fᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚinishing 21st in the championship last year, in which he managed a best result of 14th. 

Haas is expected to announce Mazepin’s replacement early next week, ahead of ♛the second pre-season test in Bahrain, which begins on March 10.