Haas’ former title sponsor, Uralkali, has made a bid to Dutch courts in an attempt to seize the team’s assets over an outstanding payment it is due from the American squad.
The Russian fertiliser company, owned by Dimitry Mazepin, became the team’s sponsor in 2021, in conjunction with Mazepin’s son, Nikita, becoming a full-time driver.
Amid the outbreak of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, Haas made the decision to withdraw its agreement, as well as replacing Mazepin with Kevin Magnussen.
After a long-standing legal dispute, Uralkali sought remuneration of the $13m sponsorship fee via the Swiss arbitration courts, a balance outstanding from the date of March 4, 2022.
Whilst the court ruled in Haas’ favour, it stated that the team could only keep some of the fee, which is believed to be around $3m.
Last month, Uralkali claimed Haas had missed a deadline to make this payment, and has now set the wheels in motion to claim these assets – including cars and equipment – and has been provisionally given favour in the matter.
It is believed that Dutch police and bailiffs visited Haas at Zandvoort on Thursday in order to speed-up the process, and whilst the team have been allowed to participate in this weekend’s race, the team have allegedly been told that its cars and equipment cannot leave the country until after the payment has been made.
This could throw the team’s participation in next weekend’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza into jeopardy, however, a statement from Haas suggests that it will be working hard to ensure the payment is made in a timely fashion.
“Haas fully intends to pay to Uralkali all amounts due pursuant to the arbitration award, and there is no dispute over the amounts owed,” the statement reads.
“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.”
Uralkali released their own statement, which read:
“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.
“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 12th 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.”
