Haas, Monaco, 2019

Rich Energy does U-turn on Haas split, blaming “rogue actions of one individual”

2019 British Grand Prix

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Haas title sponsor Rich Energy says it will “legally remove the individual” who claimed on social media yesterday it was ending its association with the F1 team.

In a statement Rich Energy said the “rogue actions of one individual” did not represent the views of the company.

In a social media post on Wednesday claimed Rich Energy was ceasing its sponsorship of Haas due to the team’s “poor performance”. However the company retracted the claim in a statement less than 24 hours later.

“The shareholders who own the majority of Rich Energy, would like to clarify certain statements that have been circulated in the media from an unauthorised source,” said the energy drink brand.

“We wholeheartedly believe in the Haas F1 Team, its performance, and the organisation as a whole and we are fully committed to the current sponsorship agreement in place. We also completely believe in the product of Formula One and the platform it offers our brand.

“Clearly the rogue actions of one individual have caused great embarrassment. We are in the process of legally removing the individual from all executive responsibilities. They may speak for themselves but their views are not those of the company.

“The incident is very regrettable; we will not be making further comment on this commercially sensitive matter and will be concluding it behind closed doors.

“We wish to confirm our commitment to the Haas F1 Team, Formula One and to thank the Haas F1 Team for their support and patience whilst this matter is dealt with internally.”

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46 comments on “Rich Energy does U-turn on Haas split, blaming “rogue actions of one individual””

  1. I AM LOVING THIS SO MUCH

    1. I still don’t remotely believe in Rich Energy, but at least it seems to have shareholders being represented by a board of directors outside of that nutjob Storey. I have no idea what these shareholders believe the company is, and it still doesn’t add up to the numbers shown in Companies House’s latest records, but getting rid of that absolute chancer can only be good for Haas and F1 and probably Rich, whatever they may be.

      1. We all love the stories of those strange, crazy and/or fraudulent sponsors in the past. Clearly this story is on course to become a RICH enhancement of the well filled pages of such in the F1 story book.

        Good to have such lovely and entertaining side stories, right @hahostolze! I am sure we will hear Storey telling his story and making a fuss too, to add to the entertainment

  2. Hiiihiiihiii!

  3. Hahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahaha!

    … pause for breath….

    Hahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahaha!

    1. Sorry, I’m late to the party.
      Please can I join in?

      Hahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahaha

  4. Theatre of the absurd

    1. Indeed – if you’d written this up as the plot of a novel, it would have been dismissed as too absurd – and we still don’t know what might yet happen next, because things are changing at a rapid rate of knots here…

  5. I fully anticipate this “rogue individual” to appear during the weekend with an attempt to sabotage Haas, Race or F1 entirely.

    …on a serious note – if it wasn’t that crazy, I would have thought this is all a set up… hmm…

    1. I think they misinterpreted the concept of there is no such thing as bad publicity

  6. The tweet is still live

  7. OK – I am going with – someone’s lawyer said –
    “Actually – this could lead to prison time”

    1. @nullapax Maybe not prison time but for sure huge fines. I don’t believe for one second this ‘rogue individual’ rubbish. They’ve just realised they are in breach of contract and they’ve found a scape goat.

  8. I assume this was Storey. If it is, what are the odds he goes, “Scorched earth” on the way out? I think this is about to get REALLY fun.

  9. Dan O' Connor
    11th July 2019, 17:05

    Can so picture Storey running onto the Hangar Street in protest this Sunday, the nutter

    1. Dan O' Connor
      11th July 2019, 17:06

      Hangar *Straight*, forgive me

    2. As I read “Hangar Street” I was picturing some Prima Donna type location in San Francisco or some such where the self victimised go to bewail their unfair treatment :)

      Actually I would fit right in somewhere like that!

    3. With clothes on, please. For the sake of our eyeballs.

  10. So much publicity for Rich, so much.. thats the goal from this.

  11. So… now the rest of the company is turning on Storey? I know we can’t be entirely sure, but the breakup tweet from yesterday seems an awful lot like a Storey tweet.

    This is may be reaching, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Rich Energy try to out him. The whole company may be shady, but it seems like there are shareholders and some kind of board of directors in place. This statement gives me the impression that there have to be at least a few people running the company that are operating on a good faith basis.

    First rule Rich has learned moving forward: Don’t let an absolute nutter run the company’s official social media accounts.

    1. I’m not sure the rest of the company is better than Storey, maybe just less prone to making fools of themselves.

      https://jalopnik.com/what-you-find-when-you-look-into-rich-energy-the-myste-1833303620

  12. The tweet is still on Rich Energy’s feed and no retraction has been posted. I wonder if someone took over their Twitter account.

  13. GtisBetter (@)
    11th July 2019, 17:36

    Rich energy shareholders: ”With haas underperforming we aren’t getting the air time we want.”

    Storey:” leave it to me! I’ll get us some headlines!”

  14. Damn. All I can say is what a crazy cut throat corporate world they all live in. The day i decided to be my own boss and set up my own gardening business, putting me and my family 1st was the best decision ever. I would hate to live life as an employee or shareholder of that kind of world.

    1. This makes me so happy to hear as I’ve just left the corporate world myself with intention of starting up my own small business. Cheers.

  15. They drink too much of the stuff themself

  16. Rogue individual is getting a huge bonus for finding yet another way to get everyone talking about the want-to-be underdog that no one cares about.

    Tomorrow’s Rich Energy headline will be:
    Rich Storey signs with Gillette razors to shave his beard, then reneges on the agreement.

  17. So back to the ZZ Top tribute band for Mr Storey?

  18. Neil (@neilosjames)
    11th July 2019, 19:30

    If they actually do manage to get rid of Storey, and turn Rich Energy into a proper company, I’ll buy a 24-pack off Amazon to celebrate.

    1. Neil (@neilosjames)
      11th July 2019, 21:23

      Oh Lord, this just gets better and better!

      Guess only he knows the password to the Twitter account…

    2. …..
      ….

      What???? :D

    3. OK, so the “shareholders” part of RE have lost control of (or never had control of) their social media accounts in the first place, Storey (or one of his cronies) has the keys to that.

      This is going to be an entertaining train wreck to follow.

  19. Stephen Higgins
    11th July 2019, 20:18

    Is this ‘rogue individual’ by any chance French, about 6″1 inches tall, and whose surname translates into ‘big john’ by any chance … ??

    1. He’s American, sports an unstilishly long beard, and has a name that can be translated as “étage”.

  20. georgeboole (@)
    11th July 2019, 20:29

    Guess our ex Prime Minister got a new job.
    He is an expert in U turns aka “kolotoumba”

    1. @georgeboole – Greece, I presume?

      1. georgeboole (@)
        11th July 2019, 23:07

        @phylyp where else?
        We have the experts that the non brexit fans should hire to do the job

        1. We have the experts that the non brexit fans should hire to do the job

          @georgeboole – LOL :)

  21. Dutchguy (@justarandomdutchguy)
    11th July 2019, 20:36

    Go home, Rich Energy, you’re drunk

  22. Took me a while, but I finally got it. Storey starred in “Iron Man 3” as the character “The Mandarin”!😝😄

  23. So much for not making further public comments:

    am the CEO and founder of Rich Energy and control the board of directors and all assets.
    I also control more than 51% of the shares
    There has been an attempted coup of my position by a handful of shareholders who have a cosy relationship with Red Bull and Whyte bikes.
    These shareholders led by Neville Weston and Charlie Simpson have failed in their efforts.

    All key stakeholders support the current strategy of the UK’s premium energy drink Rich Energy

    This whole thing is hilarious.

    1. I love the “I own all the assets” bit.
      What assets? I’m yet to see any!

  24. @keithcollantine I can’t see any other F1 site discussing the 2nd July trademark application that could be the new look Rich Energy… should you want some more traffic :)

    1. That’s actually quite a clever idea. Knock off the head, keep the antlers, which have anyway received a tonne of attention in the press.

  25. What a joke.
    Just don’t drink and tweet :))))

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