Haas F1’s former title sponsor Uralkali made a bid in the Dutch court in an attempt to force the team to pay it’s outstanding debt. Following the invasion of Ukraine the American team severed its ties with the Russian fertilizer company, owned by the father of former driver Nikita Mazepin.
After the termination of the deal, Haas kept the already paid sponsorship money, only to be called back by a Swiss arbitration court last June. The court ruled that the team was within its rights to terminate the deal, but that it would have to pay back the part of the sponsorship deal that went beyond March 4th 2022.
The remainder is believed to be around $9 million, and according to Uralkali Haas failed to meet the July payment deadline, resulting in the bid to the Dutch court. The former sponsor demanded Haas’ assets to be seized and the provisional ruling was in its favour, meaning that bailiffs and police officers visited the paddock in Zandvoort Thursday night.
During the visit the team’s assets were inventorised and evaluated, but for now participation in the Dutch GP would continue as planned. However, it is believed that the team is told that they cannot remove their cars and equipment from Dutch soil until the outstanding payment was made.
Complicating the matter is the fact that Russian companies are subject to sanctions by both the EU and the USA, meaning that Haas has to ensure that not only the money is transferred in time, but that the transfer is also fully compliant with those sanctions.
“Haas fully intends to pay to Uralkali all amounts due pursuant to the arbitration award,” the team said in a statement. “And there is no dispute over the amounts owed.
“Haas has been working with its lawyers to ensure payment will comply with all relevant US, EU, UK and Swiss sanctions and regulations.
“We will continue working with Uralkali in the coming days to resolve this matter definitively.”
The plaintiff in the case disagreed with Haas using the sanctions as an excuse for delaying the payment, but was pleased with the fact they were now busy with it.
“We are aware that Dutch bailiffs, accompanied by police, last night arrived at the Haas paddock and took an inventory of all racing equipment and other property,” a spokesperson of the company said.
“This is the expected consequence of Haas’ refusal to obey the ruling of arbitrage awarding payment and a race car to Uralkali. The arbitral ruling was issued June 12 with immediate effect and has been ignored by Haas.
“Haas has had over two months to implement the ruling, and, as was reported previously, Uralkali reached out to Haas’ representatives with options about how to make payment and where to send the race car, without ever receiving a substantive answer.
“There are not now and never have been any sanctions issues preventing Haas from fulfilling its obligations. Nevertheless, they have gone unfulfilled.
“We are delighted to hear that, following last night’s visit from Dutch authorities, Haas is finally paying attention to the arbitral ruling. Uralkali wants nothing more than to receive what it was awarded during a fair judicial process and hopes that Haas will move quickly to rectify the situation so that all sides can move on.”
