Haas F1 and Rich Energy Officially Part Ways

Paul Jeffrey

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Haas F1 drop Rich Energy 2.jpg

Surprising literally no one, Haas F1 and Rich Energy have now officially parted company following an often hilarious part season as title sponsor to the American Grand Prix team.


Joining up with the newest team on the grid in a multi-year title sponsorship deal at the beginning of 2019, the saga of Rich Energy and Formula One has taken more than its fair share of bizarre twists and turns in the last few months, eventually leading to the squad announcing an amicable separation following recent restructures of the management at the British start-up energy drink company.

Having been courted by multiple teams during the close of 2018, American outfit Haas would be the eventual winners of what was described as multi-year arrangement with the brand heading into the new season - complete with a rather fetching black and gold livery on the new car to complement the corporate colour scheme of the Rich Energy brand.

However, all would start to unravel at the drink company heading into the summer months, with first a copyright infringement court case and a string of increasingly strange tweets from former CEO Richard Storey attracting much mockery from the Formula One world - eventually leading to Rich Energy reshuffling their upper management and allegedly looking to completely rebrand ahead of 2020.

Haas are set to retain their black and gold livery for the remainder of the season, however from Singapore onwards the cars will no longer feature reference to Rich Energy branding.

The full statement from Haas F1 can be read below:

Haas F1 drop Rich Energy .jpg


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Hopefully they will get a title sponsor. Based on this years performance it's going to be tough. I wish we could just do a reboot to be honest. It's deep water in which they've chose to swim in. William's has it's history to bank on, but I fear for them if they don't come to grips with their program soon. I miss the days of privateers. No matter what the FIA / FOM do, the manufacturers have deep pockets and technologies they can use off the books in their road car programs.
 
Maybe it is Grosjeans problem that he sipped too much Poor Energy drink.

Grosjeans standard excuse: It was Ericsson hitte me - again.
Steiner: But Romain Ericsson doesnt drive in F1 anymore!
Romain: Then it was Magnussen hitte me - again. And it was not my fault to be hitte.
 
As I wrote before, this story reminds me of an infamous tradition in F1: the wacky and shady sponsor. Lotus and Essex, Arrows and Prince Malik, Andrea Moda, Onyx and Moneytron, etc. Nothing new here. I thought stuff like that would not happen again, with the current budgets so absurdly high.
And as I have said many times, a good presentation and a "good" plan can get you all sorts of investment.
 
But at least Haas are going to keep the black and gold livery for the rest of the season.

Rich Energy was the only reason Haas went to Black & Gold. I think they should ditch the entire livery and go for something that has at least a little bit of a USA influence. For goodness sake, even the little USA flag on the barge boards is all grey!! Black & Gold was nice, but Rich Energy deserves to have ZERO presence on this car.

On another note, does anyone know if Haas already has the entirety of the sponsorship money in hand? I'm sure the team will be missing it if they have to go the remainder of the season with no backing. Perhaps some large US company can jump in for support like they so easily do with NASCAR.
 
Rich Energy was the only reason Haas went to Black & Gold. I think they should ditch the entire livery and go for something that has at least a little bit of a USA influence. For goodness sake, even the little USA flag on the barge boards is all grey!! Black & Gold was nice, but Rich Energy deserves to have ZERO presence on this car.

Agree on ditching livery but I am afraid it would be very expensive to replace everything with those colors and if they have not signed new title sponsor, money is not something they have to spend on things like that right now...
 

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