Nikita Mazepin has reportedly been dropped by team Haas ahead of the new Formula 1 season.
The Moscow-born driver's immediate future on the track has been under the spotlight since Russia 's invasion of Ukraine which has raged on for more than week.
While the FIA gave Mazepin the go-ahead to compete under a neutral licence, it was confirmed on Wednesday that all Russian licence holders would be banned from competing in the UK, ruling him out of the acclaimed British Grand Prix.
And now, according to Sky Sports Germany, Haas have moved to replace the 23-year-old with Pietro Fittipaldi as Mick Schumacher 's new teammate.
With the 2022 season a matter of weeks away, kicking off in Bahrain on March 18, it means Mazepin has had his hopes of continuing his upward career trajectory dashed.
The decision from Haas to drop the young talent also paves the way for them to cut ties with the team's main sponsor, Uralkali, notably from Russia.
His father, oligarch Dmitry, is a part-owner of Uralkali and the branding of the Russian fertiliser company was removed for Mazepin's final day of testing in Barcelona last week.
Reserve driver Fittipaldi, the grandson of two-time world champion Emerson Fittipaldi, is set to step up and fill his seat for the upcoming campaign.
The Brazilian-American will be hoping to build on the two races that he had for Haas towards the end of the 2020 season and could be back behind the wheel as soon as next week, with the final pre-season test coming at the Sakhir Circuit in Bahrain.
Forumla 1's stance on Russia's invasion has mirrored that of other sports.
On Thursday, it was confirmed that their contract with the Russian Grand Prix had been cancelled, meaning the country will have no place on the schedule for the foreseeable future.
The Russian round was added to the calendar in 2014 after Bernie Ecclestone struck a lucrative deal with president Vladimir Putin.
Ecclestone, who ran F1 for four decades, backed the FIA's stance on Russian drivers this week, saying: "It was absolutely the right decision by the FIA.
"There are so many things being agreed by the world about this conflict between Russia and Ukraine. But I don't think anybody has really thought it through, or got their heads around it.
"If there is a Russian driver in F1, what does it have to do with Russia fighting a war? There is no relationship there. The Russian athletes have nothing to do with this conflict.
"They are not part of it, and they have never been part of it. They just happen to be Russian."
