Nikita Mazepin social media video incident

[Mod Aqua]

As many will be aware, Nikita Mazepin posted a video to Instagram and later deleted it, which appeared to show him groping an intoxicated female passenger in his car without her consent and she appeared to try and push his hands away from her.

This is a breaking news story and Haas have responded that they condemn the incident, find the fact it was posted on social media abhorent, and are investigating it further.

As forum moderators, we universally also condemn such behaviour, and we are disgusted by the actions that appear to have been committed.

We have discussed whether we should allow the video to be posted on this forum, and ultimately, given how easy it is to find on other places - most notably Reddit, where a censored version has been allowed by their moderators - we have decided not to allow the video to be posted.

Ultimately, if the video does show what it appears to, then it is showing a sexual assault and - even in its censored form - is not appropriate for the content guidelines we have in place.

We will allow discussion of it in detail in this thread only. We would like to remind people that given the fact this is a developing story with potential legal consequences, not to post statements that cannot be factually substantiated. This is not to defend Mazepin against slander, but to protect the forum and its members should any legal action escalate.


Updates
The female involved in the incident has posted on her own instagram to say that she was the one who posted the video (to Mazepin's account) and that the video was just them fooling around, therefore implying it was consensual.

[Siao7]

Funny thing is, I wasn't aware of it until you mentioned it Mod Aqua!

But point taken

[mikeyg123]

I'd be careful about claiming it was "without consent" if you look at the unblurred version of the video it looks consensual.

[Mod Aqua]

I'd be careful about claiming it was "without consent" if you look at the unblurred version of the video it looks consensual.

I never said it was without consent, I said it APPEARED to be without consent based on the fact she pushes his hands away.

[KingVoid]

I'd be careful about claiming it was "without consent" if you look at the unblurred version of the video it looks consensual.

I never said it was without consent, I said it APPEARED to be without consent based on the fact she pushes his hands away.

Did you read the girl’s Instagram story?

To paraphrase, she basically said: what you saw in the video was consensual, Nikita and I are good friends, he’s a good guy

[mikeyg123]

I'd be careful about claiming it was "without consent" if you look at the unblurred version of the video it looks consensual.

I never said it was without consent, I said it APPEARED to be without consent based on the fact she pushes his hands away.

The blurred version makes it look a lot worse than the uncensored version.

Not that I'm excusing Mazepin. Sharing it to social media is obviously something he shouldn't be doing.

[Covalent]

I'd be careful about claiming it was "without consent" if you look at the unblurred version of the video it looks consensual.

I never said it was without consent, I said it APPEARED to be without consent based on the fact she pushes his hands away.

The blurred version makes it look a lot worse than the uncensored version.

Not that I'm excusing Mazepin. Sharing it to social media is obviously something he shouldn't be doing.

Apparently she was the one that shared it on social media, and all in good (if misjudged) faith.

[Siao7]

This half arsed "sorry that I got caught" type of apology is not really cutting it for me. Consensual or not, it's just bad taste to post a video like that on social media.

I'm frankly more worried about his driving next year, he's shaping up to become the new Maldonado.

[Alienturnedhuman]

I'd be careful about claiming it was "without consent" if you look at the unblurred version of the video it looks consensual.

I never said it was without consent, I said it APPEARED to be without consent based on the fact she pushes his hands away.

The blurred version makes it look a lot worse than the uncensored version.

Not that I'm excusing Mazepin. Sharing it to social media is obviously something he shouldn't be doing.

Apparently she was the one that shared it on social media, and all in good (if misjudged) faith.

If that's what's she's saying then I guess that will be the factual version of events, but given it was filmed on his phone I find it hard to believe. It makes me more suspicious of the veracity of her statement. I can buy it was just horseplay, but for him to film it and then her to somehow get access to his phone and post it, that's a lot of gymnastics.

[JN23]

This half arsed "sorry that I got caught" type of apology is not really cutting it for me. Consensual or not, it's just bad taste to post a video like that on social media.

I'm frankly more worried about his driving next year, he's shaping up to become the new Maldonado.

The ‘I have to hold myself to a higher standard as a Formula 1 driver’ bit got me. How about holding yourself to a higher standard as a human being?

[Covalent]

I'd be careful about claiming it was "without consent" if you look at the unblurred version of the video it looks consensual.

I never said it was without consent, I said it APPEARED to be without consent based on the fact she pushes his hands away.

The blurred version makes it look a lot worse than the uncensored version.

Not that I'm excusing Mazepin. Sharing it to social media is obviously something he shouldn't be doing.

Apparently she was the one that shared it on social media, and all in good (if misjudged) faith.

If that's what's she's saying then I guess that will be the factual version of events, but given it was filmed on his phone I find it hard to believe. It makes me more suspicious of the veracity of her statement. I can buy it was just horseplay, but for him to film it and then her to somehow get access to his phone and post it, that's a lot of gymnastics.

This is her statement, of course I cannot say if it's true or not.


Source: https://www.formulapassion.it/motorspor ... 37053.html

[BMWSauber84]

If the woman's explanation is true, then it's a bit embarrassing but not unforgivable. With Mazepin, his reputation precedes him somewhat due to a litany of controversies and numerous examples of him not using his brain before posting/speaking.

[Black_Flag_11]

Before logging on here I saw the outrage and the video, my initial thought was that it seemed like horseplay between friends with the way she reacted, showing her middle finger to the camera etc, and that people should be careful about trying to read too much into a 10 second video without knowing the full story.

It appears from the above that interpretation was correct, and some of the stuff I've seen like people asking for him to be dropped by Haas is clearly ridiculous.

However, I don't think you have to be particularly PR savvy to know that posting that clip where people who do not know the context will see it on social media isnt the smartest move, and it does follow a pattern from him of posting on social media that has given me and many others the impression that he's an arrogant, spoilt brat.

Not a very good impression to be setting before you've even started in F1.

[tootsie323]

If the woman's explanation is true, then it's a bit embarrassing but not unforgivable. With Mazepin, his reputation precedes him somewhat due to a litany of controversies and numerous examples of him not using his brain before posting/speaking.

Largely agree - he really needs to be more savvy.

[Alienturnedhuman]

Apparently the video may fall foul of UAE public decency laws relating to social media, which is the country in which the video was filmed.

Ironic, really, given that if the interaction was completely consensual it's a non issue in the West, but it becomes a crime in Abu Dhabi..

[Siao7]

This half arsed "sorry that I got caught" type of apology is not really cutting it for me. Consensual or not, it's just bad taste to post a video like that on social media.

I'm frankly more worried about his driving next year, he's shaping up to become the new Maldonado.

The ‘I have to hold myself to a higher standard as a Formula 1 driver’ bit got me. How about holding yourself to a higher standard as a human being?

+1

[Banana Man]

When I was that age I saw that kind of thing (and much stronger) all the time on nights out. If they are friends and it was basically consensual, if possibly regrettable, then it’s not such an issue. However posting it on SM was clearly unwise and Maz needs to be a bit more savvy in future.

[mikeyg123]

I'm a bit confused by Haas' reaction to this. What exactly is it that they find "abhorrent" ?

[Battle Far]

I'm a bit confused by Haas' reaction to this. What exactly is it that they find "abhorrent" ?

Likely that they have a major sponsor (Mazepin's Dad) who is embarrassed by his son's poor judgement... again

Alternatively that they have signed a driver for 2021 who, in 12 races in the F3 Asia series this year, was beaten 4 times by Jamie Chadwick who couldn't catch a cold driving in FREC this year...

Money talks, especially loudly, in F1

[mikeyg123]

The blurred video properly stitches him up tbh. Does not give an accurate representation of what happened. I'm surprised at the puritanical response in some quarters to a bit of consensual horse play. Was it professional to publish it? Obviously not but some F1 figures almost tripping over themselves to condemn it in the strongest language they can come up with are making them look a bit silly and their attitude almost Victorian.

On Reddit there seems to be mass disappointed that nobody was actually sexually assaulted.

[TheBlackFlag]

The woman in the video, Andrea D'Ival, has come forward to say that she and Nikita are "long time friends". I haven't seen a clear version of the video, so I cant comment, but I am willing to take her word,

That said, Nikita already comes with a bunch of baggage and he needs to be doing better. It is clear he is going to be on a short leash, even with his father's considerable wealth backing him

[DFWdude]

Whether or not consensual is not the point. It does illustrate what happens when F1 teams -- in perpetual search for the almighty buck -- continue to hire "privileged" people who demonstrate a continuing pattern of undisciplined behavior that promotes unwanted controversy in the sport.

With this team attitude, you enable immature brats -- with more money than talent -- to debase a "professional" sports entertainment business, with childish stunts that are just not worth the price.

Haas has attempted to put a stake in the ground over this, that (unfortunately) will be forgotten once daddy Mazepin sends the first check.

Why F1 allows these monied interlopers in its business is beyond explanation. That this driver in particular already has a long record of self-entitled bad behaviors makes his signing all the more nebulous.

There are many other sources of money that don't bring along such unwanted, predictable baggage.

[Black_Flag_11]

The blurred video properly stitches him up tbh. Does not give an accurate representation of what happened. I'm surprised at the puritanical response in some quarters to a bit of consensual horse play. Was it professional to publish it? Obviously not but some F1 figures almost tripping over themselves to condemn it in the strongest language they can come up with are making them look a bit silly and their attitude almost Victorian.

On Reddit there seems to be mass disappointed that nobody was actually sexually assaulted.

To add to this a fairly popular response I've seen to those sharing her Instagram story is that she has obviously been paid off to say that it was ok.

Social media witch hunts are a funny business. Had this been posted by a driver who is more liked generally I think a much more reasonable response would have been given in light of all the information, but Mazepin has been in the crosshairs since his F1 announcement on account of his previous controversies, so all sense of perspective seems to have gone out of the window.

[mikeyg123]

The blurred video properly stitches him up tbh. Does not give an accurate representation of what happened. I'm surprised at the puritanical response in some quarters to a bit of consensual horse play. Was it professional to publish it? Obviously not but some F1 figures almost tripping over themselves to condemn it in the strongest language they can come up with are making them look a bit silly and their attitude almost Victorian.

On Reddit there seems to be mass disappointed that nobody was actually sexually assaulted.

To add to this a fairly popular response I've seen to those sharing her Instagram story is that she has obviously been paid off to say that it was ok.

Social media witch hunts are a funny business. Had this been posted by a driver who is more liked generally I think a much more reasonable response would have been given in light of all the information, but Mazepin has been in the crosshairs since his F1 announcement on account of his previous controversies, so all sense of perspective seems to have gone out of the window.

Yes it seems like people are disappointed they can't use this for leverage to get rid of Mazepin.

I suspect that had it not been consensual she would have been paid off to say it was. I don't put all that much store by her statement alone for that reason but the her statement along with the actual unedited footage shows pretty conclusively it was consensual.

[Banana Man]

The blurred video properly stitches him up tbh. Does not give an accurate representation of what happened. I'm surprised at the puritanical response in some quarters to a bit of consensual horse play. Was it professional to publish it? Obviously not but some F1 figures almost tripping over themselves to condemn it in the strongest language they can come up with are making them look a bit silly and their attitude almost Victorian.

On Reddit there seems to be mass disappointed that nobody was actually sexually assaulted.

To add to this a fairly popular response I've seen to those sharing her Instagram story is that she has obviously been paid off to say that it was ok.

Social media witch hunts are a funny business. Had this been posted by a driver who is more liked generally I think a much more reasonable response would have been given in light of all the information, but Mazepin has been in the crosshairs since his F1 announcement on account of his previous controversies, so all sense of perspective seems to have gone out of the window.

Yes it seems like people are disappointed they can't use this for leverage to get rid of Mazepin.

I suspect that had it not been consensual she would have been paid off to say it was. I don't put all that much store by her statement alone for that reason but the her statement along with the actual unedited footage shows pretty conclusively it was consensual.

To add to that, her immediate reaction in the video was absolutely not one of a woman who had just been sexually assaulted and very much as she said, a couple of drunk friends messing about. I’ve known and occasionally dated a few East European women. I can’t think of a Russian off hand but if you tried to grope the Poles, Latvians and Ukrainians I know you wouldn’t get a middle finger to the camera, she’d take one of her stilettos off and bet you half to death with the heel.

This doesn’t look good and I can fully understand Haas’ anger that it’s in the public domain but beyond two young drunks messing about, I really don’t think there’s much in it.

[Alienturnedhuman]

The blurred video properly stitches him up tbh. Does not give an accurate representation of what happened. I'm surprised at the puritanical response in some quarters to a bit of consensual horse play. Was it professional to publish it? Obviously not but some F1 figures almost tripping over themselves to condemn it in the strongest language they can come up with are making them look a bit silly and their attitude almost Victorian.

On Reddit there seems to be mass disappointed that nobody was actually sexually assaulted.

To add to this a fairly popular response I've seen to those sharing her Instagram story is that she has obviously been paid off to say that it was ok.

Social media witch hunts are a funny business. Had this been posted by a driver who is more liked generally I think a much more reasonable response would have been given in light of all the information, but Mazepin has been in the crosshairs since his F1 announcement on account of his previous controversies, so all sense of perspective seems to have gone out of the window.

Yes it seems like people are disappointed they can't use this for leverage to get rid of Mazepin.

I suspect that had it not been consensual she would have been paid off to say it was. I don't put all that much store by her statement alone for that reason but the her statement along with the actual unedited footage shows pretty conclusively it was consensual.

To add to that, her immediate reaction in the video was absolutely not one of a woman who had just been sexually assaulted and very much as she said, a couple of drunk friends messing about. I’ve known and occasionally dated a few East European women. I can’t think of a Russian off hand but if you tried to grope the Poles, Latvians and Ukrainians I know you wouldn’t get a middle finger to the camera, she’d take one of her stilettos off and bet you half to death with the heel.

This doesn’t look good and I can fully understand Haas’ anger that it’s in the public domain but beyond two young drunks messing about, I really don’t think there’s much in it.

The woman is a resident of the UAE, but even if she is Russian, it's not helpful to generalise based on anecdotal evidence involving women from a different Eastern European country that took place in a developed country with relatively powerful laws against sexual harassment. Women are far more disadvantaged when it comes to sex crimes, and while there are cases of women who lie, or women who harass men, these are several orders of magnitude smaller in scale to cases where men harass women, of which we only see the tip of the iceberg due to the inevitable victim blaming, and lengthy due process that is usually present with sex crime investigations.

While I agree in this case it does appear to be completely consensual, if you were a woman in the car with the son of a Russian oligarch and his friend, and you felt threatened, the safest option would be to play along until you were able to escape, so not to raise the tempers.

Having said all of that - I will reiterate that it appears that in this case it was mutual fooling around, and that the blurring out of the video made things look far worse because Mazepin's prior history of sexually harrassing female journalists in the sport, his homophobia and bragging on social media that he was going to out George Russell, meant that what people didn't see was biased by this knowledge.

I want Mazepin out of the sport for many reasons, there were many reasons before this video was even filmed, but if it does turn out to be innocent fooling around I don't think it is a good precedent to cancel someone based on a distortion of reality. If she was genuinely fine with what happened in the car, including it being posted to social media, then really there is no problem.

[Battle Far]

Mazepin is a much smaller problem to society than Cancel Culture

[Banana Man]

The blurred video properly stitches him up tbh. Does not give an accurate representation of what happened. I'm surprised at the puritanical response in some quarters to a bit of consensual horse play. Was it professional to publish it? Obviously not but some F1 figures almost tripping over themselves to condemn it in the strongest language they can come up with are making them look a bit silly and their attitude almost Victorian.

On Reddit there seems to be mass disappointed that nobody was actually sexually assaulted.

To add to this a fairly popular response I've seen to those sharing her Instagram story is that she has obviously been paid off to say that it was ok.

Social media witch hunts are a funny business. Had this been posted by a driver who is more liked generally I think a much more reasonable response would have been given in light of all the information, but Mazepin has been in the crosshairs since his F1 announcement on account of his previous controversies, so all sense of perspective seems to have gone out of the window.

Yes it seems like people are disappointed they can't use this for leverage to get rid of Mazepin.

I suspect that had it not been consensual she would have been paid off to say it was. I don't put all that much store by her statement alone for that reason but the her statement along with the actual unedited footage shows pretty conclusively it was consensual.

To add to that, her immediate reaction in the video was absolutely not one of a woman who had just been sexually assaulted and very much as she said, a couple of drunk friends messing about. I’ve known and occasionally dated a few East European women. I can’t think of a Russian off hand but if you tried to grope the Poles, Latvians and Ukrainians I know you wouldn’t get a middle finger to the camera, she’d take one of her stilettos off and bet you half to death with the heel.

This doesn’t look good and I can fully understand Haas’ anger that it’s in the public domain but beyond two young drunks messing about, I really don’t think there’s much in it.

The woman is a resident of the UAE, but even if she is Russian, it's not helpful to generalise based on anecdotal evidence involving women from a different Eastern European country that took place in a developed country with relatively powerful laws against sexual harassment. Women are far more disadvantaged when it comes to sex crimes, and while there are cases of women who lie, or women who harass men, these are several orders of magnitude smaller in scale to cases where men harass women, of which we only see the tip of the iceberg due to the inevitable victim blaming, and lengthy due process that is usually present with sex crime investigations.

While I agree in this case it does appear to be completely consensual, if you were a woman in the car with the son of a Russian oligarch and his friend, and you felt threatened, the safest option would be to play along until you were able to escape, so not to raise the tempers.

Having said all of that - I will reiterate that it appears that in this case it was mutual fooling around, and that the blurring out of the video made things look far worse because Mazepin's prior history of sexually harrassing female journalists in the sport, his homophobia and bragging on social media that he was going to out George Russell, meant that what people didn't see was biased by this knowledge.

I want Mazepin out of the sport for many reasons, there were many reasons before this video was even filmed, but if it does turn out to be innocent fooling around I don't think it is a good precedent to cancel someone based on a distortion of reality. If she was genuinely fine with what happened in the car, including it being posted to social media, then really there is no problem.

I appreciate everything I said is anecdotal and would hardly be admissible in court if it ever came to something like that, it was just a general impression of the situation, which ties in what Maz and the woman have since posted. If the woman isn’t from Russia then I guess my point is invalid anyway, so never mind.

Incidentally, regarding your second paragraph you raise a good point. Girls getting involved with rich guys, be they Arabs, Russians or otherwise, in Dubai is a seriously risky business. If you get sexually assaulted or even raped then you can’t complain. I’m not saying it’s in any way right or deserved, I’m saying they WILL definitely get away with it. You must be very careful and lucky out there.

[j man]

Lots of judgement being passed across the Internet with limited definitive evidence. Social media is very good at robbing things of their context, and there is minimal context provided for this clip. Mazepin has certainly shown some questionable behaviour in the past, but there's just not enough substance here to justify the level of condemnation I'm seeing for this particular incident.

[mikeyg123]

Mazepin is a much smaller problem to society than Cancel Culture

And this particular case shines a light on that really. People are trying to weaponize cancel culture against Mazepin here.

[Alienturnedhuman]

To add to this a fairly popular response I've seen to those sharing her Instagram story is that she has obviously been paid off to say that it was ok.

Social media witch hunts are a funny business. Had this been posted by a driver who is more liked generally I think a much more reasonable response would have been given in light of all the information, but Mazepin has been in the crosshairs since his F1 announcement on account of his previous controversies, so all sense of perspective seems to have gone out of the window.

Yes it seems like people are disappointed they can't use this for leverage to get rid of Mazepin.

I suspect that had it not been consensual she would have been paid off to say it was. I don't put all that much store by her statement alone for that reason but the her statement along with the actual unedited footage shows pretty conclusively it was consensual.

To add to that, her immediate reaction in the video was absolutely not one of a woman who had just been sexually assaulted and very much as she said, a couple of drunk friends messing about. I’ve known and occasionally dated a few East European women. I can’t think of a Russian off hand but if you tried to grope the Poles, Latvians and Ukrainians I know you wouldn’t get a middle finger to the camera, she’d take one of her stilettos off and bet you half to death with the heel.

This doesn’t look good and I can fully understand Haas’ anger that it’s in the public domain but beyond two young drunks messing about, I really don’t think there’s much in it.

The woman is a resident of the UAE, but even if she is Russian, it's not helpful to generalise based on anecdotal evidence involving women from a different Eastern European country that took place in a developed country with relatively powerful laws against sexual harassment. Women are far more disadvantaged when it comes to sex crimes, and while there are cases of women who lie, or women who harass men, these are several orders of magnitude smaller in scale to cases where men harass women, of which we only see the tip of the iceberg due to the inevitable victim blaming, and lengthy due process that is usually present with sex crime investigations.

While I agree in this case it does appear to be completely consensual, if you were a woman in the car with the son of a Russian oligarch and his friend, and you felt threatened, the safest option would be to play along until you were able to escape, so not to raise the tempers.

Having said all of that - I will reiterate that it appears that in this case it was mutual fooling around, and that the blurring out of the video made things look far worse because Mazepin's prior history of sexually harrassing female journalists in the sport, his homophobia and bragging on social media that he was going to out George Russell, meant that what people didn't see was biased by this knowledge.

I want Mazepin out of the sport for many reasons, there were many reasons before this video was even filmed, but if it does turn out to be innocent fooling around I don't think it is a good precedent to cancel someone based on a distortion of reality. If she was genuinely fine with what happened in the car, including it being posted to social media, then really there is no problem.

I appreciate everything I said is anecdotal and would hardly be admissible in court if it ever came to something like that, it was just a general impression of the situation, which ties in what Maz and the woman have since posted. If the woman isn’t from Russia then I guess my point is invalid anyway, so never mind.

Incidentally, regarding your second paragraph you raise a good point. Girls getting involved with rich guys, be they Arabs, Russians or otherwise, in Dubai is a seriously risky business. If you get sexually assaulted or even raped then you can’t complain. I’m not saying it’s in any way right or deserved, I’m saying they WILL definitely get away with it. You must be very careful and lucky out there.

I think you probably should reword the highlighted part. I know what you mean, you are referring to the fact that in that part of the world that the police will do nothing - so ie 'you can't complain to the authorities there because those who committed the assault are untouchable' - but there is an ambiguity that may cause some to read it in the same way of "women who wear a short skirt and get attacked can't complain", which I know you don't mean.

[Banana Man]

Yes it seems like people are disappointed they can't use this for leverage to get rid of Mazepin.

I suspect that had it not been consensual she would have been paid off to say it was. I don't put all that much store by her statement alone for that reason but the her statement along with the actual unedited footage shows pretty conclusively it was consensual.

To add to that, her immediate reaction in the video was absolutely not one of a woman who had just been sexually assaulted and very much as she said, a couple of drunk friends messing about. I’ve known and occasionally dated a few East European women. I can’t think of a Russian off hand but if you tried to grope the Poles, Latvians and Ukrainians I know you wouldn’t get a middle finger to the camera, she’d take one of her stilettos off and bet you half to death with the heel.

This doesn’t look good and I can fully understand Haas’ anger that it’s in the public domain but beyond two young drunks messing about, I really don’t think there’s much in it.

The woman is a resident of the UAE, but even if she is Russian, it's not helpful to generalise based on anecdotal evidence involving women from a different Eastern European country that took place in a developed country with relatively powerful laws against sexual harassment. Women are far more disadvantaged when it comes to sex crimes, and while there are cases of women who lie, or women who harass men, these are several orders of magnitude smaller in scale to cases where men harass women, of which we only see the tip of the iceberg due to the inevitable victim blaming, and lengthy due process that is usually present with sex crime investigations.

While I agree in this case it does appear to be completely consensual, if you were a woman in the car with the son of a Russian oligarch and his friend, and you felt threatened, the safest option would be to play along until you were able to escape, so not to raise the tempers.

Having said all of that - I will reiterate that it appears that in this case it was mutual fooling around, and that the blurring out of the video made things look far worse because Mazepin's prior history of sexually harrassing female journalists in the sport, his homophobia and bragging on social media that he was going to out George Russell, meant that what people didn't see was biased by this knowledge.

I want Mazepin out of the sport for many reasons, there were many reasons before this video was even filmed, but if it does turn out to be innocent fooling around I don't think it is a good precedent to cancel someone based on a distortion of reality. If she was genuinely fine with what happened in the car, including it being posted to social media, then really there is no problem.

I appreciate everything I said is anecdotal and would hardly be admissible in court if it ever came to something like that, it was just a general impression of the situation, which ties in what Maz and the woman have since posted. If the woman isn’t from Russia then I guess my point is invalid anyway, so never mind.

Incidentally, regarding your second paragraph you raise a good point. Girls getting involved with rich guys, be they Arabs, Russians or otherwise, in Dubai is a seriously risky business. If you get sexually assaulted or even raped then you can’t complain. I’m not saying it’s in any way right or deserved, I’m saying they WILL definitely get away with it. You must be very careful and lucky out there.

I think you probably should reword the highlighted part. I know what you mean, you are referring to the fact that in that part of the world that the police will do nothing - so ie 'you can't complain to the authorities there because those who committed the assault are untouchable' - but there is an ambiguity that may cause some to read it in the same way of "women who wear a short skirt and get attacked can't complain", which I know you don't mean.

Correct. For the sake of clarity; you can complain but you may as well talk to a brick wall as a Policeman, for all it will achieve.

The worst story I've heard is that of a Scottish girl who "jumped" from a 20th floor apartment in Dubai a few years ago. There might be an article somewhere but the poor girl's parents never got any justice for this "suicide."

[BMWSauber84]

Mazepin is a much smaller problem to society than Cancel Culture

And this particular case shines a light on that really. People are trying to weaponize cancel culture against Mazepin here.

Yes, I've seen plenty of tweets calling for him to lose his superlicence over this, or at least be kicked out of Formula one as a result.

I personally feel that Mazepin shouldn't be in F1 simply because he isn't good enough, and his attitude absolutely stinks. He's a thin skinned hothead with fuse shorter than MasterCard Lola's F1 stint. However, he shouldn't lose an F1 drive he has already been offered over this incident.

[Exediron]

Just want to say that, while I don't know the specifics of this incident, I've seen people saying it can't be sexual assault because the female in the video seems to be enjoying it. If she's drunk or otherwise in an altered state of mind, it easily could be considered an assault despite her reaction at the time.

[stevey]

Is it just me that kind of cant wait for the entertainment value of Mazepin in the big leagues. I expect a full on PR disaster at every event, poor performances, controversy after controversy. This might put a big black mark against a future pay drivers.

[Siao7]

Is it just me that kind of cant wait for the entertainment value of Mazepin in the big leagues. I expect a full on PR disaster at every event, poor performances, controversy after controversy. This might put a big black mark against a future pay drivers.

You may be on to something there. But the sport would suffer. Oh wait, there's no such thing as bad publicity, we'll be fine!

[Banana Man]

Good grief, Crofty is really going off on one about this. Talking about how everyone is "rightly horrified by this incident." We’ve had a sanctimonious lecture going on for about 5 minutes now.

[mikeyg123]

Good grief, Crofty is really going off on one about this. Talking about how everyone is "rightly horrified by this incident." We’ve had a sanctimonious lecture going on for about 5 minutes now.

It's absurd. When did everyone get so puritanical? Since when is "20 year old man touches consenting woman's boob in drunken fumble" Horrifying?

[DOLOMITE]

I'm not going to comment on the incident itself, but what does grate with me is how many people/organisations seem to feel the need to comment on this. It's an issue for Haas to deal with as Mazepins employer, and possibly the FIA if they feel it's directly bring the sport into disrepute. That's it, why am I seeing so "I'm horrified/disappointed.." etc type posts from anyone in the sphere of motorsport. I mean by all means say what you think about Mazepin - he's in the public domain now - but why do so many people, many of them having no direct relationship with Mazepin/Haas or even F1 feel that they are in positions to demand or dictate what should be done.

Be clear this is not me "defending" Mazepin.

[Banana Man]

I'm not going to comment on the incident itself, but what does grate with me is how many people/organisations seem to feel the need to comment on this. It's an issue for Haas to deal with as Mazepins employer, and possibly the FIA if they feel it's directly bring the sport into disrepute. That's it, why am I seeing so "I'm horrified/disappointed.." etc type posts from anyone in the sphere of motorsport. I mean by all means say what you think about Mazepin - he's in the public domain now - but why do so many people, many of them having no direct relationship with Mazepin/Haas or even F1 feel that they are in positions to demand or dictate what should be done.

Be clear this is not me "defending" Mazepin.

Because he's an easy target against whom people can direct their righteousness. That's what a lot of people want in the 21st Century, a horrible bogeyman they can demonstrate they are better than.

If you're going to say all that Crofty, let's hear your views on women's rights in the middle East. No? Yeah, best to keep quiet, we don't want to upset anyone important.