KTM Motorsports Director Pit Beirer has refuted Remy Gardner’s claim that he was told he lost his MotoGP rider due to being “not professional enough”.
The Austrian marque has confirmed that it will not field the 2021 Moto2 champion in the premier class next year, leaving him facing an uncertain future.
However, who gave him that explanation remains unknown, including to Beirer, allegedly.
“I think that’s just not correct and I don’t want to go into this game now because Remy said obviously quite some points,” he said on the television world feed during Free Practice 3 at Misano.
“But I like that boy, Remy is a fantastic guy, and we had some great days together, we had some great success together.
“I cannot say because I think he has three responsible managers – this is Herve [Poncharal], as the [Tech3] team manager; Jens [Hainbach], responsible for our road racing programme; and myself – and none of us told him this, so I don’t really know who brought it up.
“So, we didn’t call him unprofessional, so that’s one point, which I cannot even comment [on] because I didn’t say that, and the two colleagues who deal with his contract also didn’t do it.
“So, that’s something… I don’t know where he got it from.”
Asked then why Gardner had been dropped, Beirer also gave a conflicting account regarding just when the rookie and/or his management were told that he was out.
The Australian said he only found out at the previous round, a fortnight ago in Austria, yet the KTM chief says they were informed weeks ago that the option on his services would not be taken up.
“I just want to keep formal that already end of June we did not use the option on his contract,” he added.
“So I also heard him saying it’s so negative to get the information at the end of August.
“But I think him and his management were informed, end of June, that we didn’t use the option and since there it’s a little bit of a strange situation.
“At the end of the day we need to look to the future of the project and put all of the pieces of the puzzle to this project, how we think we can help the project.
“We want to be better than seventh with a fantastic rider like Brad Binder.
“So, we are now trying to create the mid-term future and then we just decided that it’s not okay to go on with Remy.
“But I don’t want to put any new points out, like what he should comment. I want to talk to him in person and not through the media because he’s a really nice kid and we want to keep the relationship with him.”
Beirer confirmed there is “a chance” that Augusto Fernandez will be moved up from Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Moto2 team, where Gardner was last year, to replace him.
Gardner’s countryman Jack Miller, who will ride for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing next year, topped FP3 for the Ducati Lenovo Team.
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