Haas seeking £35m from Rich Energy, leak claims

Haas will seek £35million in damages if Rich Energy pursues with its stated aim of cancelling its title sponsorship of the Formula 1 team.

As Haas have struggled for consistency on the track this season, their world off of it has been thrown into chaos over the past week.

Ahead of the British Grand Prix, a tweet from Rich Energy claimed it had terminated its sponsorship of Haas due to poor performance, a claim denied by shareholders in a statement.

However, the social media profile, seemingly being controlled by, or for the benefit of, CEO William Storey has turned fire on those shareholders, accusing them of a "palace coup".

Rich Energy mock Haas' poor British GP performanceSee the Tweet here.Read more

The Rich Energy account mocked Haas for their poor start to the Silverstone race, which saw drivers Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean collide before retiring.

But things soon turned serious again as the profile, for the second time in three days, leaked correspondence from Haas' legal team on Twitter.

In the letter from Ebury Partnership LLP, addressed "For the attention of William Storey", it states: "Mr Storey purports to terminate the Sponsorship Agreement with immediate effect. This amounts to a repudiatory breach of the Sponsorship Agreement by Rich Energy.

"The first date on which Rich Energy would have been entitled to terminate the Sponsorship Agreement lawfully is 1 December 2022."

Haas are seeking £6m outstanding for the 2019 season, as well as payments of £14m and £15m respectively for agreements in 2020 and 2021, taking the total to £35m.

Rich Energy are already due to pay bicycle firm Whyte Bikes more than £30,000 in damages, having been found to have breached copyright over the stag logo used on the energy drink firm's branding.

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