MotoGP rider Andrea Iannone says he is “suffering at the highest level I could imagine” following the “great injustice” of his ban being extended to four years.
It was announced on Tuesday that Iannone failed in his appeal against his 18-month doping ban that he’d received after testing positive for an anabolic steroid during the 2019 Malaysian Grand Prix weekend.
Iannone, who had a deal with Aprilia to race in 2020 after debuting with the team the year prior, spent much of 2020 facing off against the World Anti-Doping Agency in a dragged out appeals process.
This culminated in a lengthy Court of Arbitration for Sport hearing in October that was followed with a verdict being made public, in which CAS sided with WADA over Iannone.
Iannone’s A and B urine test samples had come back positive, but his defense rested on the claim that this was due to ingesting contaminated meat – but the court ruled that he and his experts failed to conclusively establish what kind of meat was at fault or prove “that there was an issue of meat contamination by Drostanolone [the anabolic steroid] in Malaysia”.
The one-time premier-class race winner will now not be allowed to race again until January 2024.
“Today I’ve received the worst injustice I could ever have imagined,” Iannone wrote in a statement reacting to the CAS ruling. “They ripped my heart apart from my greatest love.
“No logical sense on these allegation accompanied by incorrect facts. For this there will be an appropriate place and time… because I certainly do not give up.
I knew I was facing the strong powers, but I was hoping. I was hoping for intellectual honesty and the affirmation of justice.
“Right now I am suffering at the highest level I could imagine.
“Whoever has tried to destroy my life will soon understand how much strength I have in my heart. The power of innocence and above all, a clear conscience.”
“A sentence can modify the events but not the MAN.”
Iannone’s employer Aprilia stood by him publicly all throughout the process, and says it will continue to do so now – but it has previously made it clear that it will have no choice but to sign a full-time replacement if Iannone fails in his appeal.
Aprilia’s latest statement “acknowledged the decision” of the court but dubbed it “a hard decision that that seems to go well beyond what the papers, the scientific evidence and even the previous judgment issued by the International Federation [FIM] indicated”.
“Judgments must be observed and accepted, even if many elements of this decision arouse perplexities, even from a purely scientific point of view,” Aprilia CEO Massimo Rivola said.
“We do not regret having stood by Andrea and, to the contrary, we continue to stand by him at this time.
“This matter, with its extremely long times, has heavily damaged Aprilia Racing and our strategies for this and upcoming seasons. However, we must now look to the future, and it is our duty to quickly find a high-level solution that embraces the project we began with Andrea and that allows us to continue our growth, which is there and is clearly evident.”
Aprilia has Aleix Esparagaro signed up for the next two years, but will now have to look for a second rider at late notice, with most of the 2021 MotoGP rider market having been resolved for much of the season.
Test rider Bradley Smith competed in Iannone’s place for the majority of the current campaign, but has been replaced by Aprilia’s Italian Superbike champion Lorenzo Savadori for the final three races. At the same time, Jorge Lorenzo has emerged as a potential candidate for at least a test rider vacancy with the team.
