A quick before and after.
Clean as a whistle with no Russian influences to be found.
With the various sanctions taking place and Russia being similar to a "swear word" many sports are having to drop sponsorship deals making alternative arrangements. It is fine if they are a minor sponsor like in Manchester United's case being their travel sponsor with Aeroflot, but what if they are your main sponsor?
Luckily it is a small sponsor and United will survive to find someone else.
Look at Team Haas Formula One who 3 weeks out from the new season starting they are now missing a guaranteed $100 million plus a driver. Uralkali is a Russian mining company that is owned by Mazepin's dad and why he drives for the team. We all know he is crap and wouldn't otherwise have been driving any other way. One of the paid seats along with a few others who are questionable regarding their driving abilities.
Haas has had not much luck with sponsors over the years if we include Rich energy drinks who rug pulled them mid way during the season a few years back. Almost as bad as the Nigerian prince scam with the Arrows team who was supposedly loaded and had nothing.
Removing the sponsors name followed by a repaint most likely as the Russian colors are still visible.
The owner of Haas has been under pressure for some time to sell to American Michael Andretti who would add some extra spice to the team. Gene Haas has rejected a few offers in the past and possibly this is now the right time to bring in a new partner to take them to the next level.
Americans love their motor sport and having an American team with no American drivers is not exactly fueling much interest. Mazepin looks by all accounts to be gone to the sport for now as with none of daddy's money available he is just not good enough. Pietro Fittipaldi will for sure take his driving spot which would have been Andretti's choice anyway.
Business wise this deal would make perfect sense as finding an American sponsor for an American team would not be that difficult. The support Formula One would receive would be huge with regarding a new fan base as we saw what the Dutch did for Verstappen. This would be far bigger however and the sport would suddenly grow 3 or 4 x over night.
Sometimes opportunities are presented themselves when they normally wouldn't and this is one such case. Andretti was looking at joining in 2024 with his own team anyway. This could be 2 years of him getting his feet wet before he takes the plunge on his own with his own team or buying Haas out completely.
In the past we used to have 26 cars or 13 teams compared to just 20 cars and 10 teams today. I can see the grid growing as the business model currently being used with financial caps in place ensures most teams make a decent profit. Volkswagen (Audi),BMW are expected to appear on the scene at thee expense of two of the teams namely McLaren and Williams who would be prime buy out candidates.
