Formula 1: ‘Big week’ for Rich Energy; announcement looming?

Former Haas title sponsor Rich Energy again teased the possibility of a return to Formula 1, noting that the upcoming week would be a big one.

The offseason between the 2020 and 2021 Formula 1 seasons has been an entertaining one for more reasons than one, and one of those reasons has to do with former Haas title sponsor Rich Energy.

Rich Energy co-founder and CEO William Storey signed a deal with the sport’s lone American team ahead of the 2019 season, but following a disastrous and somewhat comical sequence of events that summer, featuring everything from legal battles to Twitter memes, that deal was terminated well before the 2019 season concluded.

After the 2020 season saw no involvement from the British beverage company, they have spent much of the offseason teasing a return to the pinnacle of motorsport.

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Storey, the 42-year-old British businessman who also serves as the CEO of Wolf Data Systems and the managing director of Wolf Jerky (#FeedTheWolf), called it the “greatest comeback since Lazarus” and has since released two videos about the return.

But nothing was actually confirmed in either one of them, leaving more questions than answers regarding whether or not Rich Energy, which have actually been involved in other forms of motorsport, will be back in Formula 1 this season.

In the latest video, which was posted three Sundays ago after a delay of about a week, Storey did mention a few interesting things which hadn’t been said before.

He mentioned that Rich Energy had explored entering their own team in the sport in 2022 with the new rules and regulations slated to take effect but that a friend had agreed to take a majority stake in an existing team, with Rich Energy slated to become a partner for the 2021 season and then ultimately the title sponsor for the 2022 season.

However, the team with which the partnership was supposedly formed was not actually revealed.

Since that video was released, they have continued to hint at a return in the 2021 season, although most fans have practically written them off at this point.

Their latest hint, however, noted that there is a “big week” coming up for the brand.

Could this be the week we find out the specific team with which they have supposedly partnered, or will it prove to be yet another week of not actually finding anything out?

I guess, as usual, we will have to wait and see.

Preseason testing is scheduled to take place from Friday, March 12 to Sunday, March 14 at Bahrain International Circuit following a coronavirus pandemic restriction-related schedule change which postponed what was supposed to be the season-opening Australian Grand Prix from Sunday, March 21 to Sunday, November 21.

So instead of testing at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya earlier in March, Formula 1 teams are set to test at Bahrain International Circuit, which is now scheduled to host the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday, March 28.