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Haas F1 Refuses to Pay Back Sponsorship Money to Uralkali, Demands Further Compensation

Back in March, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Haas F1 Team decided to terminate their contract with title sponsor Uralkali effective immediately, due to the company owner’s ties with President Vladimir Putin.
Haas F1 Team 6 photos
Photo: Haas F1 Team / Facebook
Haas F1 TeamHaas F1 TeamHaas F1 TeamHaas F1 TeamHaas F1 Team
The team also sent race driver Nikita Mazepin packing, who has since been replaced by Kevin Magnussen.

As you can imagine, the Russian company was less than thrilled about Haas’ decision and has since put out the following statement:

“As most of the sponsorship funding for the 2022 season has already been transferred to Haas and given that the team terminated the sponsorship agreement before the first race of the 2022 season, Haas has thus failed to perform its obligations to Uralkali for this year's season.”

“Uralkali shall request the immediate reimbursement of the amounts received by Haas.”

For the record, the refund that’s being requested is 12 million euros ($13 million), which Uralkali claims was paid in advance to the U.S. outfit. However, Motorsport has seen the copy of a letter in which Haas has already responded to Uralkali, insisting that they had a right to end the deal because of a clause which stated that Uralkali cannot “injure, bring into dispute, ridicule, or lessen the public reputation, goodwill or favorable image of Haas.

In that same letter, Haas argues that whatever money they have already received from Uralkali should not be returned.

“According to unanimous legal scholars and case law, the party which terminates the agreement for breach of the other party is under no obligation to return to such party what it has already received under the agreement. The claim of Uralkali to obtain the re-payment of the down paid amount of EUR 12,000,000 is therefore ungrounded and rejected.”

On top of all that, Haas is also demanding a payment of 8 million euros as compensation for the loss of profits they believe they would have made had the Uralkali deal remained in place. Only then would the team consider fulfilling a clause in the original contract where Uralkali would be given one of Mazepin’s F1 cars from last season.

As things stand right now, it looks as though this issue might end up before a judge, sometime in the future.
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About the author: Sergiu Tudose
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Sergiu got to experience both American and European car "scenes" at an early age (his father drove a Ford Fiesta XR2 supermini in the 80s). After spending over 15 years at local and international auto publications, he's starting to appreciate comfort behind the wheel more than raw power and acceleration.
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