Formula 1: Haas statement clarifies absolutely nothing about Rich Energy

Haas released a statement about their Formula 1 partnership with title sponsor Rich Energy following Wednesday’s news…sort of.

On Wednesday, Rich Energy, which signed with the Haas Formula 1 team as their title sponsor ahead of the 2019 Formula 1 season, revealed that they had terminated their contract with the sport’s lone American team.

They cited “poor performance” and Formula 1 “inhibiting” their business as reasons why they reportedly decided to end this contract after only nine of the season’s 21 races.

Here is what their tweet about the matter said.

Haas did not comment about the matter right away, leaving many fans wondering several things, including about the legitimacy of the partnership to begin with and even whether or not the ties between the British beverage company and the Formula 1 team had actually been severed.

Well, the team statement from Haas team principal Guenther Steiner doesn’t reveal much either unfortunately, leaving fans still wondering what, exactly, is going on between the two parties.

Here is what he had to say about the matter.

Steiner did state that “Rich Energy is currently the title partner of Haas”, but he stated that he was unable to comment further.

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“Currently” implies that nothing actually happened, and the idea of commercial confidentiality implies that there is still a contract.

However, at no point did he shoot down the company’s tweet as being “fake news” like McLaren did last week when a false report emerged that they had cut ties with two-time Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso.

One would think that he would be allowed to reveal that the contract no longer exists if it doesn’t. Conversely, one would think that if nothing actually happened, he would be free to clear up the misunderstanding and label it as “fake news”.

“One would think” are the three key words here.

With the British Grand Prix, the home Formula 1 race of Rich Energy, scheduled to take place at Silverstone Circuit in England, United Kingdom this weekend on Sunday, July 14, how will Haas approach the race weekend? Expect to know more about this developing situation in the near future.