Formula 1 News: Jean Todt hopes F1 returns to Russia

(GMM) It will not be simple for Russia to return to Formula 1, although the president of the country’s automobile federation is not ruling it out.

Russia’s Vladimir Putin-supported place in the sport appeared rock-solid until the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict in early 2022, when F1 severed all ties.

Several years later, F1 has moved on and shows no real signs of looking back.

“To bring it back, we’d have to take a race away from another country,” a realistic Boris Rothenberg, president of the Russian automobile federation RAF, told Championat.

“Time will tell,” he added. “I hope that, in the future, everything changes and goes back to normal,” said Rotenberg, referring to Formula 1’s attitude towards Russia.

Like the Sochi race, another victim of the Russia-Ukraine situation was Nikita Mazepin, who had his contract suddenly terminated by Haas.

He said last Friday at the St Petersburg international economic forum that the Russian state is at least supportive of Russian athletes and sport.

“I know about the problem first hand,” he said. “Because of the sanctions, I was forced to end my career at its peak.

“We created a fund, made certain efforts to help athletes, but they are incomparable with the efforts of the ministry of sports,” Mazepin added.

March 21, 2025

(GMM) Former FIA president Jean Todt hopes Russia will return to the Formula 1 calendar.

When Haas sacked Nikita Mazepin and his Russian sponsor at the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis in 2022, F1 also unilaterally axed the heavily Vladimir Putin-supported Russian GP at Sochi.

At the time, moves were afoot to relocate the race from Sochi to a new circuit near St Petersburg.

Amid reports of negotiations for a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire, and signs that the FIA will soon drop restrictions for Russian drivers, Todt expressed hope for the future of the Russian GP.

“I hope that peace will prevail, and Formula 1 will of course return to Russia,” the 79-year-old Frenchman told the Russian news agency Tass.

“Russia was an important race on the calendar,” Todt added.

Sochi hosted the Russian GP between 2014 and 2021.