Formula 1 set up for major off-track offseason drama?

Rich Energy continue to insist that they will be back in the 2022 Formula 1 season, and the reaction is generally the same every time.

Everybody’s favorite ex-title sponsor of a Formula 1 team is back.

Not back to Formula 1, of course, but back to insisting that they will indeed be making a return to the sport (“Chapter 2”, as they like to call it) in 2022.

Ahead of the 2021 season, Rich Energy founder and CEO William Storey, who also serves as the CEO of Wolf Data Systems and the managing director of Wolf Jerky (#FeedTheWolf), promised “the greatest comeback since Lazarus” and made an “announcement” about the team’s return for 2021.

Of course, as we all well know, Rich Energy served as the title sponsor of Haas in 2019 before a comical yet disastrous sequence of events went down during that summer, ultimately leading to the two parties cutting ties with one another well before the season ended.

To this day, Storey maintains that he “sacked” Haas for poor on-track and off-track performance.

His “announcement” about a return to Formula 1, which really wasn’t much of an announcement, was put out in a two-part video which began with him taking a drink out of a “magnificent” can of Rich Energy.

In this short clip, he indicated that the big return would actually be coming in 2022 — even though some part of it would still be coming in 2021 — but without revealing any details. He added that there had been a renaissance of the brand worldwide.

The “two-part” aspect of the video came about by the fact that the first part was randomly cut off. The second part ended up being deleted.

So take a look at part one.

Here is what Storey said in part two.

"“I have been looking for a way in which Rich Energy can return [to F1], both optimally for us and to help the team we are going to work with. Serendipitously, a strategic ally of Rich Energy, has purchased – or agreed to purchase – a majority stake in an existing team.“We did explore with the new regulations actually entering our own team for 2022, called Rich Energy F1 team, but a friend of ours has agreed a deal for a majority stake in an F1 team, and we will become a partner for that team for 2021. Once that acquisition is announced, we will become the title sponsor for 2022.“I am really looking forward to competing with our competitors on track, I will be at the first race in Bahrain, and I look forward to seeing you all there.”"

Before the 2021 season began, Rich Energy put out additional content hinting at a return.

These talks somewhat faded away as it became obvious that there would not be a Rich Energy team or any Rich Energy-sponsored drivers on the grid in 2021.

But thanks to several recent tweets from Rich Energy and Storey (effectively one in the same) insisting that a comeback is coming for the British beverage company in 2022, those talks are now back, and fans are simply not buying it.

https://twitter.com/richenergyceo/status/1463638814577106949

You get the idea. Rich Energy are returning to Formula 1 but nothing has been announced (again).

Perhaps most interestingly, after the entire 10-team, 20-driver grid was confirmed for the 2022 season with rookie Guanyu Zhou being announced by Alfa Romeo as the replacement for the Formula E-bound Antonio Giovinazzi, Rich Energy tweeted that they are “excited to reveal” their two drivers, plus a high-profile reserve driver, for next year.

Fans are justifiably skeptical about a Rich Energy “return” to Formula 1, given the fact that absolutely nothing has come out of any of their “announcements” since they left in 2019 (including hints that they would be joining McLaren or Renault).

But at the same time, Storey’s brand is actively involved in other forms of motorsport, and the whole idea of the drink not being a real drink has been disproven time and time again.

Bottom line, it will be interesting, and in some ways probably quite comical, to see how this situation develops.

How many more tweets and/or pictures will be sent out about the team making a return?

When will Storey release another “announcement” video?

Will the video be presented in multiple parts, and if so, will both parts withstand the test of time this time around?

What will be the significance of the reported upcoming launch of the Rich Energy F1 Fanzone?

No matter what happens, the whole situation has fans talking — and that might just be what the goal is. Then again, maybe there really is something much bigger going on here. It seems to be another case of “wait and see”, much like it was ahead of the 2021 season.