Haas team boss Guenther Steiner insists that title sponsor Rich Energy will be on their cars for the British Grand Prix this weekend, but admitted their future involvement needs "sorting out".
Rich Energy issued a statement on social media claiming it had terminated its deal with Haas over "poor performance", but Haas later refuted the claim, insisting they remain title sponsor.
It's believed the tweet was sent by or authorised by Rich Energy CEO Williams Storey, but was not agreed by the company's shareholders who are reportedly trying to salvage the relationship with Haas.
Speaking on Thursday, Steiner refused to go into detail given the sensitive nature of such commercial agreements, but insisted they would remain on the cars this weekend and then anything after the British GP is unclear at present.
"I would like to tell you more, I cannot," Steiner said. "I hope you respect that. I don’t want to put anybody in a difficult situation, but I cannot say anything about that.
"They will be on the car this weekend, and then the rest, we need to sort out going forwards what we are doing.
"The commercial agreement doesn’t let me talk about it, and I don’t want to. There’s no point to stir anything more up."
Steiner refused to be drawn into a "war of words" over the statement's claim of underperformance, given Haas qualified fifth at the last race.
"It’s pretty easy for me. As I said to you guys before, it’s being professional about it. I think I’m known to be professional. When I speak, I speak, when I cannot, I don’t speak.
"There’s no point to go into a war of words about something. It doesn’t even upset me. It’s just something I need to deal with next week, and I will.
"It’s part of the job. You can do without it, but it’s not like I’m staying up at night thinking about it. We get on with our job. For me what is more important is to get the car back to where we want to be, and that is our focus."
