https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/60523049

clearly the right decision. Calls St Petersburg into question as well

Agreed!
I wonder if Andretti can swoop in ?

Gunther Steiner says a decision on Uralkali sponsorship and Nikita Mazepin's future with the team will be decided next week . That tells me the lawyers are pouring through the contracts to see what a departure looks like .

Steiner stated the team is strong financially and has no affect on the team moving forward . Sounds like Fittipaldi will slot into the seat and the team seamlessly moves forward .

That would open up potential new sponsorship opportunities and/or second seat drivers . I am sure Michael Andretti is in contact with Gene Haas . Let's see how this plays out .

I sure will not miss THE slowest driver every race last year. Maza-spin needs to go away.

I can't imagine any way the Russian GP or anything or anyone from Russia being part of F1 in the next decade. Putin is a murderer and a criminal. Abosolute psychotic who needs to be stopped. And banning anything associated with Russia is how we do it. Glad Gene Haas is on board with his country's policy. It's not like anyone blames Mazepin for Putin. To the point, this is how Putin is stopped, short of shooting innocent Russians.

Glad that Ron Dennis didn't do his deal with China. I hope the Audi deal goes through. And looking forward to Red Bull Porsche.

Andretti confirms Renault engine, was really their only realistic choice, will also help Alpine too accelerate their own power unit development

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=120&v=xJ7cj79QEII&feature=emb_ logo

I'm sure now with dreadful Ukraine situation the Andretti's will be talking to Gene Haas about buying his team to save the $200million entry fee or 'dilution payment'

More here,
https://www.racefans.net/2022/02/25/andretti-has-deal-to-use-renault-power-units-and-plans-uk-base-for-f1-team/

Recruiting has kicked off too, used to things moving extremely quickly in F1 but was very surprised to get a call only 4 days after it all went public, the team will need to be up and running ASAP as it will be a monumental achievement just making it to the grid for 2024

I wish the Andretti's the best of luck as having the Andretti family dynasty involved will only make F1 more appealing for fans!

Porpoising
 

So the new cars are "porpoising", I assume that's a rebounding fore and aft which would not be a fun thing to battle for an entire race.

Back when Rob Walker was writing F1 race reports for Road & Track magazine, the new era of ground effects brought in by the Lotus 78 caused the drivers to complain about porpoising.

New cars, new rules, and porpoising is back.

One of the reports I read about testing in Portugal said that the drivers who observed Max said his car looked the smoothest. There is suspicion that he's been instructed to take it easy so as not to give away something that Red Bull has up its sleeve.

Further, Scarbs was talking today about the front A arms on the RB18 and he suspects that Adrian Newey has come up with something that causes the front end to dive dramatically under heavy braking thereby making the front wing more effective, reducing the porpoising that some other teams are experiencing.

And Mercedes today allowed their drivers to drop some of the sandbags off at the end of day 3 so that everyone would be biting their nails wondering if it was just going to be the same old same old.

I would love to see Ferrari and McLaren fighting for the wins and championships this year. My dream at the end of the season would be Danny, Lando and Carlos 1, 2 and 3 in drivers points.

Possibly, Newey has found a way to reduce the sensitivity to ride height? Maybe that's what the huge tunnel intakes are, I don't know. Or maybe RB has better heave springs.

According to this article Andretti started talking to Haas about purchasing the team two years ago .

https://the-race.com/formula-1/andretti-has-been-trying-to-buy-haas-f1-team-for-two-years/

Sky F1 Germany is reporting Haas is releasing Mazepin with Fittipaldi driving the rest of the year .

I can see that, He would very 'unwelcome' Hass needed to get on with racing not politics

Yep. Anything Russian needs to be disposed of. Get back to racing.

And it's now official: Haas F1 has terminated it's contract with Uralkali and driver Nikita Mazepin effective immediately . Fittipaldi will be testing next weekend and is familiar with the car being the reserve driver .

But rumors are getting stronger that Giovinazzi may be placed into the seat being a Ferrari contract driver. It is time for Fittipaldi to step up and show he has the stuff to keep the seat .

I don't have much faith in Gio. I would like to see Hulk return to a regular seat in F1.

+ 1 on Hulk returning

Will Haas be short on funding now ? I had thought the team had been teetering on survival/selling in the past year or so before the Russian sponsorship?

Gene Haas doesn't seem concerned about the money per this article . I would not be surprised if Ferrari throw in some $$$ to Haas to give the seat to Giovinazzi .

https://www.yahoo.com/news/haas-run-rebranded-f1-cars-220122491.html

It could be posturing. Don't want vultures circling overhead like when Force India was in trouble.

There may be something that Haas has with or against Andretti. Why would you not want to tie up with a fellow American especially now?