Mazepin F1 test omission “nothing to do with his actions” - Wolff

Toto Wolff says Mercedes’ decision not to run Nikita Mazepin in the post-season Abu Dhabi F1 test is “nothing to do with his actions” earlier in the week.

Mercedes confirmed it would be running Stoffel Vandoorne and Nyck de Vries at the test in Abu Dhabi on December 15.

Vandoorne and de Vries are Mercedes' Formula E drivers with the pair guiding it to third place in the teams' championship in the 2019/20 season.

Mazepin was rumoured to be in line for another test with the reigning world champions, having tested for Mercedes in Barcelona back in 2019.

The Russian has also completed a series of private tests in Mercedes' title-winning 2017 car.

When asked about why Mazepin wouldn’t be testing for Mercedes again next week, Wolff confirmed it had nothing to do with the video which was published on his social media account on Wednesday where Mazepin inappropriately touched a woman.

“No, it’s nothing to do with his actions,” Wolff said after FP2 in Abu Dhabi. “The most important was to have some learning from the test.

“We had an extensive testing programme with him throughout the year with a two-year-old car but for the young driver test, we decided on the line up over the last few days and providing the opportunity to Stoffel and Nyck is good. They’re our works drivers in Formula E, they’ve done a super, solid job and also with Stoffel not being in the car last week it made sense to put the two in the car.”

Mazepin will make his F1 debut next season with Haas alongside Formula 2 champion Mick Schumacher.