Rich Energy has announced the termination its sponsorship of Haas F1 Team on Twitter, attributing its decision to poor performance and Formula 1’s political correctness.
The energy drink brand took up naming rights sponsorship of Haas this year, having attempted to buy Force India before that team was placed into administration last year and also been in talks about backing Williams.
Rich Energy’s ‘stag’ logo was removed from the Haas cars last month after it lost a case in England’s High Court to Whyte Bikes over breach of copyright, although other branding remained on the VF-19s.
It now claims to have terminated the sponsorship deal on its bold and highly active Twitter profile.
The tweet reads, in full: “Today @rich_energy terminated our contract with @HaasF1Team for poor performance.
“We aim to beat @redbullracing & being behind @WilliamsRacing in Austria is unacceptable.
Take the short survey.
“The politics and PC attitude in @F1 is also inhibiting our business.
“We wish the team well.”
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
Rich Energy CEO Williams Storey had stated at Haas’ 2019 launch that, “We are looking forward to taking on Red Bull, on and off the track.”
Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen won the Austrian Grand Prix late last month, while Romain Grosjean was 16th in the lead Haas car and Kevin Magnussen split the Williams by finishing 19th after copping a drive-through penalty for starting out of his grid box.
Haas is currently second-last in the constructors’ championship on 16 points, with team boss Guenther Steiner saying it was “in the shit” after a shocking French Grand Prix performance earlier in June, while Williams is yet to score in 2019.
According to ESPN, Haas is not making comment on the matter at this point in time.
The British Grand Prix starts tomorrow with Practice 1 from 1900 AEST.
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