Only in Formula 1 could a Rich Energy-Haas disaster possibly happen

Only in Formula 1 could a title sponsorship disaster such as the one between Rich Energy and the Haas team possibly happen, and it has.

These past few days have been quite interesting for Formula 1, primarily because of the situation going on between the Haas team and their title sponsor, Rich Energy.

Rich Energy, a British beverage company, signed a title sponsorship agreement with Haas ahead of the 2019 season, but nine races into the 21-race season, they announced that they had terminated this agreement.

They did so in a tweet this past Wednesday, citing “poor performance” by the sport’s lone American team and the “PC attitude” and “politics” of Formula 1 as their reasons why.

But even after this extremely unprofessional tweet about Haas, Haas team principal Guenther Steiner stated that Rich Energy are still the team’s title sponsor. Here is a team statement about the matter.

He later stated that Haas’ two cars would feature Rich Energy branding for this weekend’s British Grand Prix, further adding to the confusion.

That confusion has only intensified.

Several other reports, many of which conflicting reports which you can read about in more detail here, have been publicized over the last few days about this ordeal, but most recently, Rich Energy put the icing on the cake with the weirdest and most pathetic statement yet.

While this statement contradicts several previous reports, it not only coincides with Rich Energy’s original tweet but one of the statements made by company CEO William Storey during which he reportedly referred to Haas as a “milkfloat” at the back of the grid.

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Justifiable speculation has heated up that perhaps this account is only a parody account, but the account history shows that it is clearly dedicated to promoting Rich Energy’s energy drinks and has been for years, even years before they joined Formula 1 by partnering with Haas.

Additionally, this account has been committed to promoting the Haas team since the two sides formed their partnership, and the odds that the whole thing is just a prank are insanely low given the fact that many reports that have come out have been from reliable sources other than the company’s tweets.

But just read that tweet. You cannot make this stuff up. It’s simply unprecedented.

Only in Formula 1 could such a disaster happen.

Imagine Nike tweeting that they’ve dumped the NBA’s LeBron James for “poor performance”, then he shows up wearing Nike shoes and they tweet: “LeBron loves Nike so much (we don’t blame him as #betterthanadidas) he has continued wearing our shoes ever after we sacked him for poor performance!”

Let’s even keep it focused on racing here for a better parallel.

Imagine NAPA Auto Parts tweeting that they’ve dumped NASCAR’s Chase Elliott and Hendrick Motorsports for “poor performance”, then the #9 Hendrick Motorsport Chevrolet shows up to the next race with NAPA sponsorship and Elliott behind the wheel and they tweet: “Chase Elliott and Hendrick Motorsports love NAPA so much (we don’t blame them as #betterthanadvance) they have kept our brand paint scheme on the car even after we sacked them for poor performance!”

You better imagine the heck out of these things because they sure won’t happen in real life, and it’s pointless to explain why they won’t happen in real life because that is obvious. Even imagining these things happening is comical.

Yet in Formula 1, where regulations have required the removal of the “Mission Winnow” branding from the two Scuderia Ferrari cars for legal reasons in numerous races so far this season, we have a complete lack of intervention by the sport, further adding to just how disastrous this situation has become.

This debacle has dominated headlines for the better part of a week, and it will probably continue to do so unless we get real answers, which is anybody’s guess as to if or when we will, especially since there has been absolutely nothing  official from Formula 1 about the matter.

This is a huge stain on Formula 1, yet nobody at the top is doing anything about it, much less to the point where it makes any kind of a difference. Sure, the sport cannot control the tweets that come from Rich Energy’s Twitter account even if they do try to intervene.

But at the same time, here Haas are still running the branding of a company that are effectively making a complete mockery out of the sport and that were suspicious to begin with for a plethora of reasons even when they signed their title sponsorship agreement with the team.

Nobody even knew who they were, yet here they are signing an agreement to serve as the title sponsor for a team at motorsport’s highest level. It was a disaster waiting to happen from the start, especially from a financial standpoint, and now it has, yet nothing is being done about it.

Again, you cannot make this stuff up.