The Court of Arbitration for Sporto (TAS) clarified that the sanction imposed on Russia by WADA, of two years without being able to participate in any world championship or the Olympic Games, It will also affect drivers who compete in FIA World Cups. Thus, like the rest of the athletes affected, Nikita Mazepin, who will make his F1 debut with Haas next year, must race without doing so under the Russian flag in the next two courses (until December 16, 2022). Thus, the driver will appear on the starting grid as a “neutral athlete from Russia”Therefore, the word ‘Russia’ may only appear next to the pilot as long as it has the same prominence as ‘neutral athlete’.
In that sense, Mazepin could not hear the anthem of his country either in the hypothetical case (although very unlikely) of going up to highest on the podium in his first two years in F1.
These measures are part of the sanction of the World Anti-Doping Agency confirmed by the CAS and reduced from 4 to 2 years. All this, for hiding and falsifying data from the AMA.
A different case of Mazepin will be, for example, the one seen in lower categories like Formula 2, where the young talent of the Ferrari academy, Robert Shwartzman will be able to continue competing with the Russian flag, since the silver category is not considered as the FIA world championship.
Further, This sanction will not have any effect on the Russian GP to be held in Sochi, as the organizers of the event announced months ago.
