Rich Energy blasts 'rogue actions of one individual'
Shareholders and board members of sports drinks company Rich Energy have blamed a 'rogue individual' for a tweet this week that announced the termination of its title sponsorship of the Haas F1 Team.
In a formal statement released on Thursday afternoon, the business insisted that it remained committed to the team and to Formula 1.
"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 statement
"We wholeheartedly believe in the Haas F1 Team, its performance, and the organisation as a whole," it insisted.
"We are fully committed to the current sponsorship agreement in place. We also completely believe in the product of Formula 1 and the platform it offers our brand.
"Clearly the rogue actions of one individual have caused great embarrassment," the statement added.
"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," the statement admitted. "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 1 and to thank the Haas F1 Team for their support and patience whilst this matter is dealt with internally."
It was not immediately certain who the "rogue individual" with access to the corporate Twitter account might be.
There has been strong speculation that it could be referring to Rich Energy's founder William Storey, who was also critical of the team in an overnight interview with The Sun.
"Haas [are] nice people but the car is going backwards," he told the tabloid newspaper.
“We are a superior product to Red Bull," he added. “A milkfloat at back of grid a disaster for us. End of.”
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