According to UK Government documents, the bearded maestro of Rich Energy Drink company is no longer associated with the group. It seems that William Storey is no longer associated with Rich Energy and the remaining shareholders have re-branded the company as Lightning Volt.
In one of the more bizarre sponsor situations, Storey announced via Twitter last week that they were terminating their deal with Haas F1 due to poor performance. The team responded that they were unaware of any cancellation but that didn’t stop Storey from then accusing the team of buddying up with hostile minority shareholders cozy the Red Bull to wrest control of the company away from him.
Storey even posted what he says was a letter from Haas F1’s legal team threatening to file suit if they did not pay the remaining amount of the sponsorship. While Storey may have a legitimate concern over performance given the teams dual DNF in the British Grand Prix, the sponsorship deal is said to be continuing.
The Companies House documents state that Storey and his business partner, Zoran Terzic, are no longer with Rich Energy and that Mathew Kell has replaced him as director. According to the documents, Kell owns 75% of the shares directly or indirectly”.
I saw the initial announcement from Formula Money and then a second piece by Autosport which added that the address had been changed as well to a company called BDG Group and that company’s website says they are:
“UK’s leading unlicensed Insolvency Practitioners we offer a genuine alternative to our clients which will give you a clean bill of health going forwards, your reputation will be intact, and we’ll deal with all the outstanding issues.”
Later revisions removed the name BDG Group but retained their address. Some funky maneuvering here and all of this adds to the embarrassment of Has F1 who were challenged from the very beginning about their new sponsor at the beginning of the year. Almost everyone saw this coming…except maybe William Storey.
Hat Tip: Autosport and Formula Money
I bet Rich Energy wishes they had a business continuity plan right about now.
No kidding! I would imagine our friend Skip would have helped William out of this jam.
Is there a particular order between constructor – sponsor – engine manufacturer naming scheme?
Haas F1 Ferrari Lightning Volt has a pretty good ring to it. Not sure the Ferrari is needed, but works either way.
Kind of apt really, considering this whole thing is one big car crash.
Not sure who’s worse at their jobs right now: William Storey, or Romain Grosjean.
And today’s rumor is that Red Bull is suing William Storey. Damnit Netflix you’re gonna need more than 10 episodes of Drive to Survive next year!