Haas livery to change? Rich Energy in major transformation

Haas F1 Team

Haas livery to change? Rich Energy in major transformation

The saga concludes, for now...

Matthew Scott

Wednesday 17 July 2019 12:18

The rowing between Haas and Rich Energy has seemingly come to an end, after the drinks company's CEO William Storey sold his shares, but is it just the start of another story?

Storey has sold his shares to a third party, Rich Energy's Twitter account confirmed, while he has been removed as a director, according to Companies House.

Not only that, but the company has changed name to Lightning Volt.

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Whether that means a change in look for Haas at next weekend's German Grand Prix and beyond remains to be seen. GPFans has contacted Haas for clarification on the matter.

William Storey founder of @rich_energy has sold his majority stake in the legal entity of Rich Energy Ltd to a third party. This was in disgust at conduct of duplicitous minority stakeholders. In the words of @Schwarzenegger he'll be back!#richenergy #F1 #nobull #williamstorey pic.twitter.com/wvjRBAIqx9
— Rich Energy (@rich_energy) July 16, 2019

Haas' livery has already changed this season in the removal of Rich Energy's stag logo, which was found to be in breach of copyright of bicycle manufacturer Whyte Bikes.

The new man in charge of Lightning Volt is Matthew Kell, also a director of five other companies with interests ranging between construction, art galleries and electric installations.

There has been none of the bombast with which Storey arrived in F1 with at the start of last year as he looked to purchase Force India.

That was driven into top gear ahead of the British GP last week when tweets from Rich Energy claimed that 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, Storey turned fire on those shareholders, accusing them of a "palace coup".

The account also leaked two letters from Haas' legal team, which revealed that the American F1 squad had expressed concerns over the matter and then sought £35million in damages if Rich Energy was to try and cancel its sponsorship.

This matter will seemingly subside now Storey has departed, with the remaining shareholders having previously looked to salvage the deal.