Formula 1: Whyte Bikes threaten winding up orders over Rich Energy logo case

Whyte Bikes have threatened winding up orders over the case involving the logo of Haas Formula 1 title sponsor Rich Energy.

Rich Energy have been in the news for all of the wrong reasons over the last few days after announcing on Twitter that they had cut ties with the Haas Formula 1 team.

Prior to the 2019 Formula 1 season, Haas signed the British beverage company as their title sponsor, but after nine of the season’s 21 races, the company called out the team on Twitter for their “poor performance” and Formula 1 in general for their “PC attitude” and “politics”, citing these factors as the reasons for their decision to cut ties with the team.

Here is this tweet.

As if that wasn’t weird enough, things have only gotten weirder from there.

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner effectively rejected the idea that Rich Energy had ended their relationship with the team. Here is what he said in this statement.

Reports emerged that backed up this claim, as Rich Energy’s investors were reportedly working to salvage their relationship with Formula 1’s lone American team following their unprofessional tweet. This tweet was blamed on a “rogue individual”, but Rich Energy CEO William Storey denounced the shareholders’ ensuing statement as “ludicrous”, “risible” and part of a “palace coup”in a tweet by the company.

But to make matters even weirder, another report emerged that Storey had, in fact, confirmed the team’s severed relationship with Haas, referring to them as a “milkfloat” at the back of the grid.

Rich Energy then attempted to clear things up by revealing “the actual situation” on Twitter. This “actual situation” was shown in an email sent on behalf of Haas from their lawyer, Jeremy Courtenay-Stamp, to Neville Weston, one of Rich Energy’s shareholders who supposedly wants to oust Storey from his position as the company’s CEO.

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Within this “actual situation” is the issue with which Rich Energy have been faced for several months, and that is the issue regarding their logo, which is nearly a carbon copy of the logo of Whyte Bikes, a British bicycle designer.

Whyte Bikes won their action against Rich Energy, Story and Staxoweb, their logo designer, back in May, and an ensuing court order confirmed that these three defendants needed to pay £35,416 by yesterday, one day following Rich Energy’s initial tweet about leaving Haas.

They did not pay.

Now Whyte Bikes are prepared to explore their options, among which is the option of submitting applications to wind up Rich Energy and Staxoweb in addition to petitioning for the bankruptcy of Storey.

Here is what a Whyte Bikes statement said about the matter, according to Motorsport.

"“On 27 June 2019 the High Court in London made various orders against the Defendants, Rich Energy, William Storey and Staxoweb. One of the orders was that they should pay to Whyte [ATB Sales] costs totalling £35,416 by 11 July 2019.“The Defendants have failed to pay any of the costs award. Each of the Defendants is jointly liable for the whole amount of costs awarded. ATB will now be forced to take appropriate action to recover the costs that they have been awarded. This may include applications to the Court to wind up both Rich Energy and Staxoweb and to petition for the bankruptcy of Mr Storey.”"

Rich Energy’s future in Formula 1 and in general remains unclear, but you can almost be sure that what is already a complex and strange story will get even more complex and a lot stranger as time passes.