Haas F1 is under threat from former advertiser, Uralkali, of having their cars and assets seized at the Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix this weekend. According to Autosport, Uralkali sought the assistance of a Dutch court to have the assets seized over missed refund payments from a canceled sponsorship deal back in March of 2022.
This all started as the F1 world began to jettison any Russian involvement in the series and Haas sent their driver, Nikita Mazepin, and his father’s Uralkali sponsorship packing in 2022.
Haas F1 released a statement:
“Haas fully intends to pay to Uralkali all amounts due pursuant to the arbitration award, and there is no dispute over the amounts owed.“Haas has been working with its lawyers to ensure payment will comply with all relevant US, EU, UK and Swiss sanctions and regulations.
“We will continue working with Uralkali in the coming days to resolve this matter definitively.”
While Uralkali released their own statement:
“We are aware that Dutch bailiffs, accompanied by police, last night arrived at the Haas paddock and took an inventory of all racing equipment and other property,” said a Uralkali spokesperson.
“This is the expected consequence of Haas’ refusal to obey the ruling of arbitrage awarding payment and a race car to Uralkali.
“The arbitral ruling was issued June 12th with immediate effect and has been ignored by Haas.
“Haas has had over two months to implement the ruling, and, as was reported previously,
Uralkali reached out to Haas’ representatives with options about how to make payment and where to send the race car, without ever receiving a substantive answer.
“There are not now and never have been any sanctions issues preventing Haas from fulfilling its obligations. Nevertheless, they have gone unfulfilled.
“We are delighted to hear that, following last night’s visit from Dutch authorities, Haas is finally paying attention to the arbitral ruling. Uralkali wants nothing more than to receive what it was awarded during a fair judicial process and hopes that Haas will move quickly to rectify the situation so that all sides can move on.”
It’s not the first time F1 cars and teams assets have been threatened to be seized. You’ll recall Ferrari in 2020 and the consumer rights group accusing the cars of sponsoring tobacco. Or perhaps more controversial was Sauber’s decision in 2015 to not run Geido van de Garde as their driver forcing him to seek an Australian court injunction to allow him to drive. The team and Geido settled out of court.
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Uralkali is owned by a Russian Oligarch Dmitry Arkadievich Mazepin who is on the embargo list. The money Haas has to return to them is embargoed by EU and US regulations. The Dutch Court merely affirmed that the two sides had agreed on the amount NOT than it needed to break the sanction to be repaid. Moscow RT (TV) carried this Dutch Court finding as a triumph for Putin’s policy of opposing sanctions….
I haven’t done a deep dive into it but I imagine perhaps that’s what the Haas lawyers are trying to determine…if and how the debt would be re-paid given embargo etc.
No matter how you look at it, the whole situation is fertilizer :D :| :/ Okay, I’ll get off the stage.