Rich Energy back in F1? MotorMouth speaks exclusively to William Storey

Rich Energy founder William Storey has told The MotorMouth Podcast that he fully intends to bring his contraversial drinks brand back into the Formula 1 Paddock. This, despite the challenges he faced last time around.

Speaking this week ahead of the Australian Grand Prix, Storey said. 

“In 2017, I tried to buy a Formula One team. I had the money to buy Force India, we had a fantastic business plan. I agreed a deal with Vijay Mallya, I went to sign the contract with him and literally, he was warned off by lawyers whilst we were sat there ready to sign contracts. 

“I wanted to own a team, I wasn’t interested in being a sponsor. Then what happened was three teams came out of the woodwork to court us to want to work with them. McLaren and Williams in particular came out and approached us. We entered into negotiations with both of those teams over probably 6 months, we went to the McLaren Technology Centre and they had the full liveried up Rich Energy McLaren and then we went to Grove for the Williams factory and they did the same thing.

Of the two I felt Williams was probably a better bet for a variety of different reasons. And then we got a knock on the door from Haas, would you be interested, and the deal we were able to negotiated was far better. It was a big thing for me to have the car black and gold. 

I thought for tens of millions we’re getting value that is not bad at all, and that was certainly the best deal on the table?”

Host, Harry Benjamin asked Storey if he will be back in Formula One?

“I think almost certainly, I think with whom is a really interesting question and in what capacity. I would like to own a team and to buy a team it will cost me three or four times as much as 2019.

We’ll see, I’ve got some friends who own teams, for us, we need to recallobrate what we’re doing and I think its important for me to anaylse the strengths and weaknesses. 

It remains a brilliant platform, certainly the best motorsport platfom in the world by a country mile so as a consumer brand, its of huge value to us.”

Asked if he would have done anything differently? Storey said.

“Well I think its very easy to be wise after the event isn’t it? I mean, at the end of the day, you can only play the hands you’ve got. And if you play the hand as well as you can, if somebody runs into the casino and steals your chips, then, you know, that’s slightly out of your hands. I could never have foreseen that Haas would be dishonest and disloyal. I could never have foreseen that I would have repeated legal actions on what I personally felt were spurious grounds. I couldn’t have foreseen that some investors who were enjoying stratospheric growth on their investment would be stupid enough to try and steal Rich Energy from me and try and take the business, so I couldn’t have foreseen those things, so the irony is that had I been less capable I probably would have had less problems. So I think it was really educational. You’re always learning.”

The full interview of William Storey’s interview with The MotorMouth Podcast can be found here: https://pod.fo/e/170a7b

Let us know what you think of William, and his Rich Energy journey. Is there substance behind the bluster?

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Tim Silvey
Tim Silvey(@speedytim)
11 months ago

Will he or wont he?

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