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      11-01-2020, 06:47 PM   #11
apexit4
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From what I've been reading, its supposedly Mick and Nikita Mazepin for the second seat. Mick brings the engine discount and is very marketable given his surname. Mazepin purely for the money.

I dont like the idea of Mazepin in the second seat, but the reasoning I've heard makes sense. The revenue that teams are set to get next year is set to be about 50% less than normal, which will put a burden on the teams further down the field. It's widely accepted that HAAS runs their team with the smallest budget. Their budget is actually so low that they wouldnt even reach the cost cap that is coming into effect next season. Extra cash would be welcomed by the team.

There's also the Russian GP connection. The promoters of the race are keen to have a russian on the grid, as is Putin. If Kvyat is set to be dropped from AT as is widely reported, then Mazepin would fill that void quite nicely. I know this particular point sounds a bit less concrete, but it's already happened once in the past when Sirotkin was signed by Williams for 2018. Kvyat was dropped at the end of 2017, so SMP funded his seat at Williams. If I remember correctly, they had to increase the amount they were initially willing to pay to get him the seat as there were other better candidates. And it just so happens that the owner of SMP racing is the owner of SMP Bank (Boris Rotenberg), who is very cozy with Putin. Most of the wealthy oligarchs in Russia have some sort of connection to Putin, so it wouldnt be that farfetched for Uralkali (Mazepin's fathers source of wealth) to invest heavily into getting Mazepin into HAAS.

Will be interesting to see what happens, but stranger things have happened in F1.....
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