Haas “focused” on resolving Uralkali threat over outstanding payment

The Haas F1 Team are working hard to resolve an ongoing outstanding payment to former title sponsor Uralkali which could impact their participation in next weekend’s Italian Grand Prix.

On Friday at Zandvoort, it was reported by Motorsport that Uralkali - Haas’ Russian title sponsor in 2021 - had made a bid to courts in the Netherlands to seize the F1 team’s assets over an outstanding payment. 

In June, the Swiss arbitration court ruled that Haas should refund Uralkali a portion of the sponsorship payment for the 2022 season, the report stated.

Uralkali were set to be Haas’ title sponsor for the 2022 campaign but were dropped on the eve of the season.

This was because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, also resulting in Nikita Mazepin’s dismissal ahead of the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

It’s reported that the fee owed is in the region of $9 million.

Addressing the issue for Haas, team boss Ayao Komatsu told media including Crash.net at the Dutch Grand Prix that they are looking to resolve it swiftly.

“We accepted it. We’re not disputing it whatsoever,” Komatsu said in Friday’s FIA press conference.

“It’s a complicated process to transfer the funds across and we’re working on it. It’s taking longer than I’d like.

“We are pretty focused on making it across as soon as possible.”

After taking the matter to the Dutch courts - and an initial ruling in their favour - bailiffs visited Haas on Thursday at Zandvoort to evaluate the team’s assets.

While Haas’ participation at the Dutch GP is not in doubt, the same report claims the team’s equipment and cars cannot leave the country until the outstanding payment is made.

Since the initial news broke, Uralkali released the following statement to RacingNews365: "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.

"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.”