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Formula 1: Top 5 moments of the Rich Energy-Haas debacle

By Asher Fair

LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 07: (L-R) Rich Energy CEO William Storey, drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen and Rich Energy Haas F1 Team Principal Guenther Steiner pose alongside the car during the Rich Energy Haas F1 Team livery unveiling at The Royal Automobile Club on February 07, 2019 in London, England. (Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 07: (L-R) Rich Energy CEO William Storey, drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen and Rich Energy Haas F1 Team Principal Guenther Steiner pose alongside the car during the Rich Energy Haas F1 Team livery unveiling at The Royal Automobile Club on February 07, 2019 in London, England. (Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images) /
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LONDON, ENGLAND – FEBRUARY 07: (L-R) Drivers Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean, Rich Energy CEO William Storey and Rich Energy Haas F1 Team Principal Guenther Steiner (Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND – FEBRUARY 07: (L-R) Drivers Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean, Rich Energy CEO William Storey and Rich Energy Haas F1 Team Principal Guenther Steiner (Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images) /

5. Self-contradicting message

Twice William Storey took to Rich Energy’s Twitter account to share with the world messages that had been received by Rich Energy shareholder Neville Weston on behalf of Haas. The first of these two instances, he revealed what he referred to as “the actual situation”, which only made him look worse than it already did.

The second of these two instances, however, was the real kicker.

Storey has been insistent on the sentiment that Rich Energy terminated their title sponsorship contract with Haas, and he made this very clear in his tweet.

However, the corresponding message to Weston literally contradicts everything Storey had to say in his caption of the photo.

Here is this tweet, which includes a photo of the message.

  1. “People of lies from Haas” – not true, see reasons below
  2. “Rich Energy terminated the agreement” – not true (“Mr. Storey purports to terminate the Sponsorship agreement with immediate effect. This amounts to a repudiatory breach of the Sponsorship Agreement by Rich Energy”)
  3. “The team have accepted contrary to their public denial” – not true (“our client has elected to accept this repudiatory breach and claim damages”)
  4. “They were complicit in trying to oust CEO William Storey” – not true (not in the message itself, but Storey made the original claim about the title sponsorship agreement termination to begin with. Even after that, Haas team principal Guenther Steiner stated that the two organizations had not severed ties.)
  5. “…gave them a £35m personal guarantee” – not true (even if Storey making the guarantee is true, its credibility isn’t. The copyright issue discussed in the message is the one regarding Whyte Bikes. They won their action against Rich Energy over the use of Rich Energy’s stag logo and Rich Energy were ordered to pay £35,416 Thursday, July 11. They didn’t/couldn’t even pay that much, which is only about 0.1% of £35m)
  6. “#truth” – not true (self-explanatory)

Moving on.

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