Rich Energy, William Storey and Haas explained in under three minutes
General
Rich Energy could be on the verge of a return to Formula 1. William Storey has stated their intentions to return to F1 this year. Here's a very brief recap of William Storey, Rich Energy, and Haas F1 team!
Rich Energy is an energy drinks company that was founded in 2015 but the development of their product stems all the way back, to 2009. According to their Wikipedia page, they were founded by William Storey and an "anonymous Austrian scientist”, sounds dodgy right, well we’ve only just begun. They claim to make a “premium and innovative British energy drink” yet the product is hardly available for purchase.
If the brand wasn’t shady enough William Storey is an interesting character himself. He claims to have been in the RAF, been an ex-professional footballer for QPR reserves, a professional gambler but arguably the most bizarre, he claims to have been a tobacco farmer in Zimbabwe.
That’s enough about the drink itself, much like other brands, Rich Energy looked to branch out into the sports market. They sponsor boxers Lucas Browne and Gennady Golovkin, but they claim to sponsor West Ham United Women’s football team along with 24 other entities… Emphasis on the claim.
In 2018 Haas F1 team confirmed Rich Energy would become their title sponsor. However, in July 2019, less than a year after a deal was struck the Rich Energy Twitter account announced that the company had ended its sponsorship of the team citing poor performance on the track and Formula One group's politics and attitude. Guenther Steiner revealed this had come completely out of the blue. We aren’t done there, the company's shareholders then attempted to deny the announcement on social media, stating that the apparent termination of the sponsorship deal was "the rogue actions of one individual”. Storey then accused the board of mounting a coup against him.
On the weekend of the Italian Grand Prix, with the damage already done, Haas confirmed the end of their deal with Rich Energy. However, earlier in July Storey sold his stakes in the company before buying them back a month later as the company was renamed Lightning Volt Ltd.
And now we are here, January 2021, and Storey has announced Rich Energy’s intentions to return to Formula 1. In a video on Twitter, Storey confirmed the plans to return to the grid this year, where you ask? We have absolutely no idea.
Don't forget to subscribe to the GP Blog YouTube channel for more content like this!