Former Haas sponsor Uralkali has made a bid in the Dutch courts to seize the Formula 1 team's assets – including cars and other equipment - over an outstanding payment.
Following a Swiss arbitration court hearing in June, it was ruled that Haas should refund Uralkali part of its sponsorship payment made for 2022, prior to its title deal being cancelled in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
While the court stated that Haas was within its rights to terminate the deal, it also said that the American-owned squad could only keep a portion of the $13 million sponsorship balance paid for the campaign.
Haas was therefore ordered to give back the remainder of the sponsorship payment that went beyond 4 March, 2022, when the deal was cancelled. It is believed that this totalled around $9 million.
Following Uralkali’s claims last month that Haas had missed the July payment deadline for the refund, it is understood that the Russian company decided to escalate the matter with courts in Holland this week.
It asked for Haas’s assets at the Dutch Grand Prix to be seized – with a provisional ruling being given in its favour.
As a result, bailiffs and police visited the Haas team at Zandvoort on Thursday night to push forward with the matter and evaluate the team’s assets.
While it was agreed that Haas’s participation in the Dutch Grand Prix could proceed as normal, it is understood that the team has been told that it will not be allowed to remove its cars and equipment from the country after the race until the outstanding payment has been made.
A statement issued by Haas made clear that it was now working with Uralkali to finalise the transfer of the funds, with it saying it had to be sure that any payments fully complied with sanctions that have been imposed on various Russian companies.
The statement said: “Haas fully intends to pay to Uralkali all amounts due pursuant to the arbitration award, 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.”
Uralkali issued its own statement on Friday, welcoming the fact that Haas was working on sorting out the payment – but said it did not view the sanctions issue as a justifiable reason for the delay.
"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,” said a Uralkali spokesperson.
“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."
