Uralkali acted as the main sponsor of Haas throughout the 2021 season.
The Swiss arbitration court ruled in favor of Haas in a legal dispute involving the Formula 1 team’s decision to terminate its sponsorship agreement with Uralkali in 2022.
Uralkali, a fertilizer producer owned by Dimitry Mazepin, became the main sponsor of Haas in 2021 when Nikita Mazepin was promoted to full-time driver.
Uralkali sought to recover the $13 million sponsorship fee paid to Haas for the entire 2022 season, even though they had not completed a single race.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Haas removed Mazepin from their driver lineup for 2022 and immediately terminated their partnership with Uralkali.
Uralkali claimed that they had provided the majority of the sponsorship funding for the 2022 season and accused Haas of not fulfilling their obligations.
As the two parties disagreed, the matter was taken to a legal dispute, with Uralkali announcing that Haas had breached the contract earlier this week.
“The court determined that Haas breached the contract and ordered the team to compensate Uralkali,” explained a statement.
“The court also dismissed all counterclaims by the team against the company.”
However, during the Spanish Grand Prix weekend, Haas issued their own response, revealing that the arbitration tribunal had ruled in their favor to terminate the agreement.
“The arbitration panel determined that Haas had ‘just cause’ to terminate its sponsorship contract with Uralkali and rejected Uralkali’s claim of contract breach,” stated Haas.
“The panel determined that, considering all the facts related to the parties’ relationship, including Uralkali’s association with Russia, it could not reasonably be expected for Haas to continue the Sponsorship Agreement under these circumstances. The Arbitral Tribunal concluded that Haas had a valid reason to terminate the Sponsorship Agreement.”
“The panel noted that several other sports organizations severed ties with Russian companies immediately after the invasion of Ukraine, creating the risk of Haas being the last non-Russian sports team with a Russian-named sponsor.”
“As a result, the panel declared that the sponsorship was effectively terminated on the date of Haas’ notice of termination and ordered Haas to retain the portion of the sponsorship fee for the period prior to termination, while reimbursing any remaining balance to Uralkali.”
