Chaos in F1: the police arrive and demand the seizure of an F1 team’s cars

In June, a Swiss arbitration court ruled that Haas must return Uralkaliwho became a team sponsor in support of Nikita Mazepinpart of the payment for the sponsorship of the 2022 course, in which the team removed the Russian driver due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In total, the sponsorship is 12 million per season and it is believed that Haas must pay the Russian fertilizer giant around 8 million euros, something that Haas will fail to comply with. For this reason, Uralkali took action and, although, according to ‘Motorsport.com’, the Haas cars will be able to compete in the Netherlands GP, the two cars and the other assets of the team will not be able to leave the Dutch. country until Haas fails to pay. We must remember in this sense that next week the Italian F1 GP will be held, so the American team will have to act quickly to avoid problems.

According to the aforementioned media, judicial and police agents appeared in Zandvoort and they access the Haas box to analyze what happened and detail the assets the team has to keep them under control.

Haas reacted

Therefore, Haas issued a statement regarding the matter this Friday: “Haas fully intends to pay Uralkali all amounts owed pursuant to the court’s decision, and there is no dispute as to the amounts owed. Haas is cooperating with its attorneys .to ensure that payment complies with all relevant US, European Union, United Kingdom and Switzerland sanctions and regulations.

For his part, Uralkali also gave his position on the facts: “We know that Dutch bailiffs, accompanied by the police, came to the Haas paddock last night and inventoried all the team’s equipment and other property.”

“This is the expected consequence of Haas’ refusal to comply with the court’s decision providing payment and a race car for Uralkali. The court’s decision was issued on June 12 with immediate effect and was ignored by Haas.”commented a team spokesperson in statements to ‘Motorsport.com’.

“Haas had more than two months to comply and, as previously reported, Uralkali contacted Haas representatives with several options on how to pay and to see where the race car would be shipped, without ever received a response noun. There is now and is no issue with the sanctions preventing Haas from meeting its obligations. However, they were violated.”he added.

“We are pleased to learn that, after last night’s visit by the authorities, Haas has finally paid attention to the court’s decision. “Uralkali wants nothing more than to receive what was awarded to it during a fair judicial process and hopes that Haas can quickly rectify the situation so that all parties can move forward,” concluded the Uralkali spokesperson.