When Haas F1 announced its new sponsorship deal with an unknown energy drink manufacturer called Rich Energy, the F1 press were not convinced. In fact, the press pumped the brakes on the entire story and challenged the viability of Rich energy as a going concern and the efficacy of the sponsorship in total.
Several weeks later, Rich energy was named in a court case over their logo and the team was told to remove the Stag logo due to copyright infringement. As the spobnsorship matured, fans were befuddled as they looked for Rich Energy drinks in their local stores and finding Rich energy became as elusive as the details of their sponsorship of Haas F1 or the reasoning Haas even engaged the company for a sponsorship.
Haas F1 has nothing to worry about now as Rich Energy sent a tweet telling the world that they were terminating their sponsorship due to poor performance.
“Today @rich_energy terminated our contract with @HaasF1Team for poor performance. We aim to beat @redbullracing & being behind @WilliamsRacing in Austria is unacceptable. The politics and PC attitude in @F1 is also inhibiting our business. We wish the team well #F1 #richenergy”
Today @rich_energy terminated our contract with @HaasF1Team for poor performance. We aim to beat @redbullracing & being behind @WilliamsRacing in Austria is unacceptable. The politics and PC attitude in @F1 is also inhibiting our business. We wish the team well #F1 #richenergy pic.twitter.com/9mAt2dOnYu
— Rich Energy (@rich_energy) July 10, 2019
The level of bravado in the face of litigation that their main brand element is not to be used is stunning. In fact, reading their Twitter feed alone is a bit of an adventure and ripe with bravado and a seemingly misinformed concept of what Formula 1 truly is.
I am still unclear as to why Haas F1 engaged rich Energy as Gene Haas said he was in F1 to promote his CNC machinery in Europe and that gives me reason for pause if I’m honest. Let’s be honest, Rich Energy isn’t wrong about poor performance and it is that very performance that makes me wonder if this isn’t the reason Rich Energy was brought in to begin with.
Regardless, I’m not sure how much money rich paid Haas F1 but I suspect it wasn’t worth the headache and controversy the sponsorship prompted over a seemingly non-existent product. If Rich Energy are looking to beat Red Bull, then perhaps they could start by trying to be them at the product distribution battle because I can find Red Bull in just about every store I go in, I’ve never seen a Rich energy can anywhere.
I hear-by vote we change the name to the “Rich Energy Trademark to be Determined Bravado Award”, because that’s some decade winning bravado right there.
Also, Ouch… Wiliams.
Wow. Bravado yes, stupidity yes, a shame????
So when will it take effect?
Will I see different coloured cars this weekend in Silverstone?
I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop: “Rich Energy Executives Arrested on Charges of Fraud, Money Laundering and Ponzi Scheme”.
So if they want to “beat Red Bull” all they have to do is pony up the big bucks and sponsor Mercedes. Any other problems you would like me to solve?
So where does this leave Haas? Weren’t they meant to have a bank guarantee from RH?
Rich Energy? Isn’t that what plants crave? Wait, that’s Brawndo. Never mind…
I can’t wait to see STEINER’s reaction in the next season of the Netflix documentary.
Note that the tweet doesn’t specify whose poor performance…
Tweet from Haas.
“Rich Energy is currently the title partner of Haas F1 Team. I cannot comment further on the contractual relationship between our two parties due to commercial confidentiality.” – Guenther Steiner, Team Principal https://t.co/egSltgGnAO
I suspect that this means that Rich Energy does not actually have the ability to cancel the contract mid-season, and Haas expects them to continue to send them checks. Sounds like this one is headed to court, and Rich Energy hasn’t shown anything in previous court cases to make us think they’re capable of winning any lawsuit. The problem for Haas is trying to extract the rest of the money you’re owed from a failing company that never really made any money in the first place.
Rich Energy is going to be so embarrassed when they notice all the typos in that post. They completely misspelled “We have to bail on this incredibly ill-advised contract because we ran out of money when our fraudulent business collapsed.”
Who didn’t see this coming? There’s been an air of suspicion and intrigue hovering over Rich Energy since the start of the season. I thought they were some little-known electric power provider. As of this writing, the team still calls them as their title sponsor.
Further intrigue reported by Motorsport:
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/rich-energy-investors-save-haas-deal/4492346/
Apparently the CEO tried to cancel the Haas deal without input from the investors, and the investors are trying to can the CEO and save the Haas deal.
Although I have to say, if I was an investor in Rich Energy, I’d be less concerned about F1 sponsorship and more concerned about trying to get as much of my money out of this disaster as quickly as possible.
I just read an article on the Racer Magazine site to the effect that William Storey is being scrutinized by his board for this statement and may well be given the heave-ho, as the deal in place is, well, still in place. So–the gift that keeps giving I suppose until someone takes away his company Twitter account.