Rich Energy, the energy drinks company that sponsors the Haas F1 team, has renamed itself Lightning Volt and split ways with former CEO William Storey.
Doubt was cast over the future of the title sponsorship deal ahead of the British Grand Prix when Rich Energy's Twitter account claimed the company had terminated its contract with Haas. It later emerged that there was an internal dispute at the company, with Storey hoping to end the sponsorship and a group of shareholders keen to continue.
The issue came to a head on Monday when documents filed with the U.K.'s Companies House revealed Storey was no longer associated with the company and its name had changed from Rich Energy to Lightning Volt.
The news was followed up by confirmation from Rich Energy's Twitter account that Storey had left the company and sold his shares.
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 was not able to comment on the news on Monday evening, but speaking over the British Grand Prix weekend, team principal Guenther Steiner said he was hopeful a solution could be found to allow the sponsorship deal to continue.