#mazepin??

[the-girl-down-the-street]

girl what the fuck are you okay

[certifiedbi]

Guys we have a problem

[your-ace-cousin-clover]

telling my kids that they were the backstreet boys

[raapija]

Lance so real for seeing Egg Head walk past and moving back to hit a nasty pose to fight the cringe 😭

Iconic Lance moment in history 💅✨

[not-that-syndrigast]

The Haas and Uralkali situation explained

Some of you might’ve heard of it, those that didn’t should now. In the course of this race weekend, news came out that equipment and the cars of the Haas F1 team could be seized, as they owe their former sponsor Uralkali money, and as long as they don’t repay that money, their assets, in this case cars and equipment could be seized. All of this could lead to them missing the Italian Grand Prix, if not more, but what exactly happened and what will Haas do now? I’ll try to answer these questions and give my opinion on the situation, but i’ll preface all of this by saying that I am not legally involved in any of this, which means I can also only give you public knowledge and while i tried my hardest to research all the facts, it’s impossible to be sure that everything is correct, but more to that later.

Back to the problem; where did all of this start?

Uralkali ‘is a Russian potash fertilizer producer and exporter’ as stated on Wikipedia. It’s a pretty big company with a lot of assets, in 2018, they had assets worth roughly $8 billion. With these big numbers in mind, Uralkali became a sponsor of Haas in 2021. I’ll make a separate post about  sponsors, but important to know for this is that sponsors hold contracts with the teams. They give the teams money that's needed and in return, depending on how much they gave, they get things back from the team. As you’ve probably guessed, Uralkali gave quite a big sum of money to Haas, they became title sponsor, so for 2021, Haas was officially called ‘Uralkali Haas F1 team’, their cars livery was in the russian flag and they signed Nikita Mazepin, son of Dmitry Mazepin who’s one of the most influential Uralkali shareholders. It’s not quite clear how much money Haas got, but multiple sources talk about roughly $12 million, which makes sense if you take all factors into account.

From the money Haas made, they bought equipment and parts for the cars, so as far as sources state, all the money they initially got has been used up.

In 2022, following Russia's invasion of the Ukraine, many business people and oligarchs were sanctioned. I could not find clear statements of Uralkali itself being sanctioned too, but considering that most of the owners and shareholders are, I would assume that that puts the company also under certain sanctions. The important part here is that both Nikita and Dmitry Mazepin have been put under sanctions. These sanctions consist of asset freezes and travel bans, which resulted in Nikita Mazepins contract and the sponsoring contract being terminated by the team. 

Now this is where the problem starts; by contract, there's usually a clause that does not allow one party of the deal to just withdraw, at least not without paying their shares back. Due to the sanctions, though, it was not possible for Haas to pay the money that they owed back.

According to multiple sources, there was an arbitration court hearing in June in Switzerland, in which the court ruled that Haas needs to pay back the money that they owe Uralkali. Again, different sources talk about different amounts of money, since the ruling was kept private, but Uralkali states that by contract, they are also owed "a team race car from the 2021 season”. It’s difficult to rule out what really happened as different sources state different things, but they all have in common that Haas did not meet the required time to pay back whatever they owe, may that be because of the sanctions or because they lack the money, the important point is, Uralkali proceeded with a bid to get their court ruled money in assets. This race weekend, Haas has been apparently visited by bailiffs to evaluate what assets are of what value that could then be owed to Uralkali.

All of this is pretty irrelevant to the dutch grand prix, as it has been made sure that the valuation and official proceedings do not happen during the day and Haas has been ensured that this race weekend would continue, this could change though for the italian grand prix. If bailiffs decide which assets are worth the amount they owe Uralkali, these could be kept in the Netherlands until Haas pays or be taken as substitute for the money, although I am not sure where the legalities would lie there with what Uralkali is allowed to do with the assets then. 

The big problem for Haas right now, is paying. It's unclear if Haas has the money to pay it back, if they do it would obviously be a big setback because we are talking about millions of dollars here, but there is another problem; due to the sanctions, Haas states, the process of paying is difficult; “Haas has been working with its lawyers to ensure payment will comply with all relevant US, EU, UK and Swiss sanctions and regulations.” Uralkali states that this is not a good reasoning, but politics are difficult to follow, so even with extensive research I cannot guarantee you that paying is even a possibility without breaking sanctions by certain countries. For Haas the problem stays; they need to pay before Monday, or their assets will not be allowed to leave the Netherlands.

Due to this, rumors have surfaced, saying that this could be the end of Haas. Even if they pay the money and can compete in Italy, a lot of people expect it to be the final hit for Haas and possibly result in the team leaving or being bought up by Andretti, an American company that has tried to get into F1 for a while now. As of now, i cannot answer these rumors based on proof, but i can share my thoughts; leaving the sport completely is not as easy as it seems, there are contracts and rules, depending on the contracts, just leaving could cost Haas even more. Although selling the team would bypass these rules, selling a team takes time. Andretti could benefit from Haas being cheaper to buy than it would usually be, if the owners want to leave they’ll want to do it fast and for a team like Haas, you really cannot ask for much. In the end I do think though, that the rumors are unwarranted. If Haas gets sold, it's because they got a good offer, not because they suddenly want to leave when things get hard, especially since things were never easy at Haas to begin with.

I hope I explained and summarized the whole situation properly. As always, I'm open to explain my thoughts further and for comments and what you guys think of the situation and in this case rumors.

[ilottthepilot]

Heartbreaking: the most annoying people you know make pretty good, funny content every few months

[scrollonso]

dont fucking piss me off.

[velvetvexations]

Every day you should remind yourself that they won't let Michael Andretti, the single most iconic American open-wheel race car driver and also a Formula One champion, enter a team, but they let Nikita Mazepin drive.

[lumestari]

mick schumacher when haas sells him to pay off their debt with uralkali: this morning i woke up to the sound of my mother calling me down for breakfast. i put my luscious blonde hair into a messy bun, and threw on the first thing i picked out of my closet. i took a quick look at myself in the mirror, with my bright blue orbs. this is the outfit i chose (photo). i went downstairs and saw my mom, ayao, waiting in the kitchen with a strange man. "mick!" she said "i sold you to uralkali, to pay off our debts with your estranged father, guenther, and so they wouldn't repossess our car" (picture of a ford fiesta). "this man is the owner of uralkali. you will be living with him and his son from now on."

[vicsy]

lmao this is so funny like people treat Lance like he’s the worst thing that happened to f1 HELP AHAHAHA keep my beautiful tall wife’s name out of your fucking mouth

[slythereen]

i see carlos on track anywhere near charles and i am genuinely afraid something awful is going to happen. more tense than when it’s literally anyone else, and it’s his own teammate… and that’s why i think it’s reasonable to like carlos as a person but not in a ferrari

[certifiedbi]

The current discussion around what's happening with Haas rn is really making me realise how new some fans are because wdym you don't know Uralkali or the Mazepin family?!

[atlanticbones]

[gargoylegeckooo]

Just seen a TikTok talking about *that* Nikita Mazepin comment on George’s instagram live, and holy shit, people are way to comfortable about the idea of someone being outed!

There have been many TikToks I have seen trying to bring it back and what not, which is awful in itself, but in this particular one the person went onto saying interviewers should ask George about what it means???

You are ignorant if you do not know what that comment suggests, and to go on to say that George should be asked about it when he is in a happy relationship with his girlfriend is absolutely horrible, and *if* anything was to come from it, you do not deserve to act all happy and supportive of him.

To threaten to out someone is homophobic. To joke about someone threatening to out a person is homophobic.

George’s business is no one else’s business and just because someone of very little importance decided to become a keyboard warrior in George’s Instagram live, you are not entitled to knowing what it meant. Especially considering it probably means nothing!!!

People are too comfortable with casual homophobia and instead of calling people out on that, they’re adding to the problem by making a joke of it.

[lolasrambles]

Can anyone explain why the F1 movie is a self insert fan fiction set in this universe??? Like I saw the trailer now I want to find the master tape and burn it because WHY DOES IT LOOK SO SHIT????

[inhidingxoxo3637]

Male F1 fans spent more time debating the ethics of Kelly Piquet homie hopping Kvyat to Verstappen than they ever did debating how Mazepin should've been dealt with after his SA incident which leads me to my next point ; Why male F1 fans get absolutely ZERO bitche-