Mazepin had his contract cancelled along with the sponsorship deal with his father’s firm UralKali, which had funded his drive with Haas, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Reserve driver Pietro Fittipaldi had been expected to fill the seat, having stepped in to race for the team twice in 2020, with others suggesting Nico Hulkenberg or F2 champion Oscar Piastri would step in.
Few will have expected that Magnussen would return. He had been due to join the Peugeot LMH squad competing in the World Endurance Championship following a season racing in IMSA with Cadillac. But with that programme now on hold, with no news of a racing debut for the Peugeot 9X8, Magnussen has taken the offer of a return to F1. No word has come from Peugeot or Chip Ganassi, which he was continuing to race with in IMSA, but it appears he has been released from his sportscar commitments.
The deal, described by Haas as “multi-year” will see Magnussen partner Mick Schumacher in the VF-22, a car he will drive for the first time in this week’s pre-season test in Bahrain.
Magnussen has raced 119 times in F1, with 79 of those starts coming with Haas from 2017-2020. He finished ninth in the F1 Drivers Championship in 2018 and recorded highest finishes of fifth with the team.
He and former team-mate Romain Grosjean were let go by the team at the end of a disappointing 2020 season, to be replaced by Schumacher and Mazepin.