The Rich Energy-Haas Formula 1 title sponsorship situation has been bizarre to say the least. Here are the top five moments of it.
The debacle between the Haas Formula 1 team and title sponsor Rich Energy has dominated headlines over the course of the past week or so, and it has arguably become the strangest non-racing-related story in the history of the sport.
No, I lie. Is it even arguable at this point?
Rich Energy signed on as the title sponsor for Formula 1’s lone American team ahead of the 21-race 2019 season. But nine races into the season, the British beverage company supposedly called it quits, blaming numerous different reasons pertaining to both Haas and Formula 1 itself for what they referred to as “terminating” the deal between the two parties.
Since then, things simply spiraled out of control, and the situation became almost exclusively headlined by the statements and tweets made by Rich Energy CEO William Storey and the contradictions from literally everyone and everywhere else. Storey has since sold his majority stake in the company.
But without giving too much away here to open things up, let’s dive right in to the top five moments of this crazy Rich Energy-Haas Formula 1 title sponsorship debacle.
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.
- “People of lies from Haas” – not true, see reasons below
- “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”)
- “The team have accepted contrary to their public denial” – not true (“our client has elected to accept this repudiatory breach and claim damages”)
- “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.)
- “…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)
- “#truth” – not true (self-explanatory)
Moving on.
4. Ripping for repping
Rich Energy literally took to Twitter to rip Haas for…running their branding in their British Grand Prix?
That’s correct.
When Haas showed up to the British Grand Prix weekend with Rich Energy branding still on their cars even after the title sponsorship agreement between the two organizations had supposedly been terminated (even though Haas team principal Guenther Steiner confirmed that it hadn’t), Rich Energy blasted them for it in a sarcastic way on Twitter.
Can you imagine this happening in any other sport? Can you imagine Under Armour falsely claiming to dump Tom Brady and then tweeting: “Tom Brady loves Under Armour so much (we don’t blame him as #betterthanadidas) he has continued to wear our clothing even after we sacked him for poor performance!”
This is almost too comical to even believe, yet there it is, right on Twitter for all the world to see.
But the best part is that this isn’t even one of the top three moments of this debacle.
3. Milkfloat picture
When Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen collided on the opening lap of the British Grand Prix, resulting in tire punctures for both of their cars that ultimately led to them being forced to retire and officially finishing in 19th and 20th place, respectively, for their first double retirement since the 2018 season opener, Rich Energy were quick to harass them for it.
On Rich Energy’s Twitter account, William Storey photoshopped himself into a Rich Energy/Haas-branded milkfloat. He is wearing a green safety vest and holding a Rich Energy energy drink while he drives the machine.
What is the context of this?
At one point during this debacle, Storey reportedly “confirmed” that Rich Energy had terminated their title sponsorship agreement with Haas, and he did so by referring to the team as a “milkfloat” at the back of the grid, again calling them out for their poor performance.
So here’s a Rich Energy Haas milkfloat, which, ironically, had it been in action during Sunday’s 52-lap race at the 18-turn, 3.661-mile (5.892-kilometer) Silverstone Circuit road course in Silverstone in part Northamptonshire and part Buckinghamshire in England, United Kingdom, would have made it farther than the two Haas cars did, perhaps even combined.
But seriously, just consider the level of pettiness that went into this tweet and understand that this is Formula 1 we’re talking about here.
This is the pinnacle of motorsport.
I can’t even.
2. The bizarre opener
Nothing ever beats the original.
Well, in this case, there is one thing that does, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.
Seemingly out of nowhere and 10 days after the most recent Formula 1 race, the Austrian Grand Prix, Rich Energy tweeted that they had terminated the title sponsorship agreement between them and Haas, which only just began ahead of the 2019 season.
Yet after nine of the season’s 21 races, this deal was apparently no more.
This tweet ended up being proven not true, which you’ll see definitive evidence of in the next slide if everything else hasn’t convinced you of this already. But in addition to the fact that the two sides never actually cut ties, it was also fairly obvious that “poor performance” or anything related to the “PC attitude” or “politics” of Formula 1 had to do with the creation of this tweet.
The most recent Formula 1 race had not taken place for 10 days, so if the issue was really Haas’ poor performance, we would have known it right after Kevin Magnussen finished behind Williams rookie George Russell in this race, not 10 days later and conveniently just one day before their £35,416 to Whyte Bikes was due.
Additionally, as expected, we now know that there was nothing even remotely close to being along the lines of a performance clause in the Rich Energy-Haas title sponsorship agreement.
With all things considered, the fact that this original tweet isn’t number one on this list says a ton about number one’s significance.
1. William Storey’s big mistake
This is it; the number one moment throughout the Rich Energy-Haas title sponsorship debacle.
William Storey made a huge mistake.
Read this tweet in which he tried to bash Haas for a “repudiatory breach” of the title sponsorship agreement.
Notice what I’m noticing?
Three little words.
“Your title partner”
How many times did Storey previously say that the contract between the two organizations had been terminated?
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There was his original tweet, there was his rejection of Rich Energy’s shareholders’ claims, there was his “milkfloat” quote, there was his British Grand Prix branding tweet and there was his tweet calling Haas liars.
That’s five literally right off the top of my head.
Now read it again.
“Your title partner”
Storey basically just unintentionally admitted he has been lying about this contract the whole time. Rich Energy wouldn’t be Haas’ title partner if the contract had been terminated.
In Storey’s own words, “End of.”
In my words, “End of Storey”.
This is pure gold.
Like I said in the original article we published about the matter, in case this tweet gets deleted as a form of “hiding the evidence”, we have it copied.
Just to be sure, however, here you go again.
"“Lobbying for the removal of the CEO, largest shareholder & founder of your title partner is repudiatory breach @HaasF1Team. Mr Storey was also personal guarantor of the contract. It is like @rich_energy seeking to remove Gene Haas! Amidst the noise let’s get real. #richenergy”"
Perhaps even funnier is the fact that he talks about “noise” when he is the one who started that noise — and for literally the exact opposite reason of “getting real”.
Just hours later is when Storey sold his majority stake in the company.
This crazy Formula 1 title sponsorship scenario involving Rich Energy and Haas may not be over quite yet, even after William Storey sold his majority share of the company, but his role in it is likely done, meaning that it may be hard to unseat any of these five moments as the top five moments of the entire debacle considering they literally all stemmed from him. Of course, there are numerous other contenders as well as it is, so this situation should provide no shortage of entertainment for quite some time.