Since its arrival in the F1 paddocks, Rich Energy has conspicuously chosen a communication style full of ambition. At the end of the first day of winter testing, the brand boasted on social media that Haas had finished ahead of Red Bull. Its CEO, William Storey, does not hesitate to promise that he is building a brand capable of dethroning its Austrian competitor both on the track and on the shelves.<\/p>\n
However, the British justice system has today convicted him of plagiarizing his logo, directly inspired by the one created by a bike brand, Whyte Bike. In the documents presented to the court, the differences between the two logos are minimal.<\/p>\n
But above all, the judge was very critical of William Storey, concluding: \u00ab I found Mr. Storey and Mr. Kelly (his childhood friend whose agency provided him with the logo) to be unreliable witnesses. Mr. Storey made different and inconsistent statements regarding the development (of the Rich Energy logo), which largely contradicted Mr. Kelly’s account. \u00bb<\/p>\n
Furthermore, it has been established that the brand name is not a reference to the city of Richmond in Surrey, where the CEO is from. In fact, it was chosen by Croatian Drazen Majstrovic when he founded it in 2013, before the brand was acquired by William Storey.<\/p>\n
This procedure also shed light on the actual activity of a brand more present through its sponsorship activities than in stores. Thus, when he was questioned about his statement to the press last February that Rich Energy had produced 90 million cans, he sidestepped by declaring that he had produced that number of cans but had not sold them all, nor even filled them! Thus, the CEO with an improbable look stated that he needed to check the figures but had sold around three million.<\/p>\n
The livery of the two Haas cars should therefore change significantly by the Monaco Grand Prix as the controversial logo appeared in multiple locations. This all takes us back to a time we thought was over, when businessmen bought visibility through associations with F1 teams, as was the case in the 1980s and 1990s.<\/p>\n