Formula 1: Rich Energy’s ulterior motive accidentally revealed?

This whole Rich Energy ordeal involving their title sponsorship of the Haas Formula 1 team may actually make sense, but not for a good reason, as they may have accidentally revealed their ulterior motive.

In what has been arguably the craziest non-racing-related Formula 1 story in the history of the sport, Rich Energy’s recent actions pertaining to their title sponsorship of the Haas team have left pretty much everybody scratching their heads.

Before the 2019 season began, the British beverage company signed a title sponsorship agreement with Formula 1’s lone American team. However, nine races into the 21-race season, they posted on Twitter that they had terminated this agreement.

This tweet blamed several factors for this termination. Here is this tweet.

All Haas team principal Guenther Steiner had to say about the matter afterward in a statement that was not released until the next day was that Rich Energy were still the team’s title sponsor.

While this didn’t seem like any kind of clarification of the matter at the time, it could actually reveal something that has not officially been stated when coupled with all of the reports and other information that have followed.

Here is Steiner’s statement about the matter.

Several new reports have emerged since then, including one stating that Rich Energy’s investors were trying to salvage their relationship one Haas after they made such an unprofessional tweet and another stating that this tweet was the action of a “rogue individual” who they were supposedly in the process of  “legally removing from all executive responsibilities”.

Then Rich Energy tweeted a statement from company CEO William Storey calling the statement about the company salvaging the relationship with the team “ludicrous” and “risible” and stemming from a “palace coup”. This tweet is provided below.

But then things really started to get interesting, and this is where Rich Energy may have gone too far for their own good, and more than once, and accidentally revealed their ulterior motive to starting this whole situation.

Another report surfaced that Storey confirmed that Rich Energy had cut ties with Haas, and in his statement about the matter, he referred to the team as a “milkfloat” at the back of the grid, effectively contradicting his statement about the “ludicrous” and “risible” tweet.

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Meanwhile, Steiner confirmed that Haas would still be running Rich Energy branding on their two cars in this weekend’s (today’s) British Grand Prix at Silverstone Circuit.

Does this make any sense whatsoever?

Not on the surface, but yes considering what happened next and piecing that together that everything else that has gone on in this situation.

Whyte Bikes have been in a legal dispute with Rich Energy over the use of Rich Energy’s stag logo. As you can see below, despite what Rich Energy claim in this tweet, their logo is effectively a Whyte Bikes logo but with two extra lines and a different color.

On Friday, Whyte Bikes revealed that they are prepared to explore potential options against Rich Energy, including possibly submitting applications to wind up the company along with Staxoweb, their logo designer, in addition to petitioning for the bankruptcy of Storey.

Why Friday?

Whyte Bikes won their action against Rich Energy, Staxoweb and Storey back in May, and a court order issued at a later date confirmed that these three defendants needed to pay £35,416 to Whyte Bikes by Thursday, July 11.

Thursday, July 11 was just one day after Rich Energy began this whole Twitter mess with their original tweet, a tweet in which they blamed Haas’ “poor performance” for why the title sponsorship deal was supposedly off.

But the most recent Formula 1 race, the one they referenced regarding Haas getting beaten by the backmarker Williams team, had not taken place for 10 days. Why wait this long to announce this supposed severance of ties?

Perhaps equally as intriguing, what does the “PC attitude” and “politics” of Formula 1 have to do with anything when hardly anybody would know the name Rich Energy if not for their title sponsorship deal with Haas in the first place?

Now Thursday, July 11 rolls around. Have these defendants paid Whyte Bikes?

Not shockingly, no they have not.

So what am I getting at here?

Look at what Rich Energy did next and you’ll see.

The British Grand Prix weekend rolled around, and Haas kept the Rich Energy branding on their cars, just as Steiner stated they would.

How did Rich Energy react?

With by far their most pathetic statement yet.

Read this.

So did the “rogue individual” come back and send yet another extremely unprofessional tweet, or was that a lie like everyone thought it was from the start?

When you think about it, this tweet should be a dead giveaway as to what is going on, and what is going on appears to be this.

Rich Energy want Haas to remove their branding — but not simply to end their relationship.

Consider this.

If the agreement between Rich Energy and Haas has not actually been terminated like Haas continue to maintain without stating literally anything else about the confusing matter at hand, Rich Energy could cry foul play and turn around and sue the team for breaching their contract if Haas were to remove the Rich Energy branding from their cars no matter what kind of trash talking is going on.

Rich Energy started this whole mess one day before their money was due to Whyte Bikes by blaming something that happened 10 days prior, which should have been a yellow flag to begin with since they still hadn’t paid up at that point, and Steiner never said anything more than the fact that Rich Energy remained Haas’ title sponsor, even with all of the information that was coming from Rich Energy.

It all makes sense.

One day before pay-up day, Rich Energy decide that they are not going to (or can’t) pay and try to embarrass Haas and get them to remove their logos from their cars, perhaps even by making Haas think that the deal had actually been terminated when it hadn’t, just to try to finagle money out of them.

That doesn’t work, so the company CEO “confirms” the termination, even though it never actually happened, and insults the team again in another attempt to do so.

That also doesn’t work, so Rich Energy take another jab at Haas on Twitter for running their branding for the British Grand Prix, and, once again, they state that they have “sacked” the team for “poor performance”.

Meanwhile, Steiner has since stated that he does not believe this has damaged Haas’ reputation, and he believes that it shouldn’t, all while maintaining what he has made clear from the start that Rich Energy are still Haas’ title sponsor, effectively verifying that the company’s latest tactic has not worked either and that the Rich Energy branding will stay.

Even before this latest development, this was clearly never about Haas’ “poor performance” or the “PC attitude” and “politics” of Formula 1.

This was never about anything more than money. The idea of potentially suing Haas just puts the icing on the cake.

The puzzle pieces fit.

The only question now is how long will this last before the truth, whether it is this theory or something else, is revealed?

As off-the-wall as this sounds, especially for it to be happening at the high level of motorsport that Formula 1 is, this is probably the only theory that makes sense from start to finish of the entire situation and is plausible given what each side has stated so far throughout it.

This is truly a crazy scenario that nobody in Formula 1, or really in any form of motorsport or sport, has ever experienced. It is simply unprecedented, so the answers to it naturally will likely fit that same unprecedented mold.

On a site note, before I close, if this is really what has been going on, then Guenther Steiner is absolutely right about this not giving Haas a bad reputation and deserves a ton of credit.

In fact, Haas should be commended for handling this rotten situation the way that they have from start to finish, aside of the fact that they agreed to terms with Rich Energy in the first place when pretty much everyone else suspected that they were a shady company, particularly due to the fact that almost nobody knew who they were and they suddenly came out of nowhere to become the title sponsor a Formula 1 team, something that only world-renowned brands tend to do.

The financial aspect of this deal screamed disaster waiting to happen, but how Haas have handled it since it did happen has been phenomenal if this is truly Rich Energy’s ploy.