KTM’s motorsport boss Pit Beirer has broken his silence on the explosive comments made by the marque’s departing satellite rookie rider Remy Gardner earlier this weekend at the San Marino Grand Prix, countering the Australian’s insistence that he was released for being unprofessional.
Instead, he appeared to suggest that it was Gardner’s commitment to KTM’s MotoGP project and his public comments about the state of the bike that led to his departure.
The reigning Moto2 world champion emotionally confirmed on Thursday at Misano that he had been informed at the Red Bull Ring that he wouldn’t be a part of the team next year, telling media that he had been told by KTM management that the reason for not having his contract extended was his “lack of professionalism”.
However, that was completely dismissed by Beirer when he spoke to MotoGP during FP3, the only time he has spoken to the media about Gardner’s comments despite repeated requests from The Race since Thursday afternoon.
“I think that’s just not correct,” he said. “I don’t want to go into this game because Remy said obviously some points, but I like the boy.
“Remy is a fantastic guy and we had some great days together, some great successes together. I cannot say because I think he has three responsible managers: Herve [Poncharal] as a 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. We didn’t call him unprofessional, which is one point I can’t even comment on as I didn’t even say it and neither did my two colleagues who deal with his contract.
“I don’t know where he got it from but it sounds like he was really disappointed. Not a super good outcome.”
However, with Gardner not afraid to speak his mind this year about the state of KTM’s MotoGP project after a tough start to his rookie season, Beirer also intimated that part of the reason for the Australian’s departure was related to those comments.
“At the moment I feel like we need to work on the bike side, improve our bike and give the riders a better base,” added Beirer. “Not to blame them for the results we’re not having. On the other side, we need to have also people who believe in our project and that we can succeed, and that was for us a crucial point.
“We got some information earlier in the season, during the season, which were not the kind of commitment we need. It’s not about the positive comments because we need to always live with the reality, but the commitment and the belief that we can fix it. We need those people around us because we are not there, where we want to be, and we want to build a better bike and have a better base for our bike.
“Of course that’s a huge effort between the team and the factory at home, but the key to success is the rider on track and they need to believe also.”
Beirer also dismissed Gardner’s grievance that he was only told he wouldn’t be with the team after qualifying at the Red Bull Ring two weeks ago, instead insisting that the Australian should have understood in June when KTM didn’t take up an option on his contract that his seat could be lost for 2023.
“I just want to keep it formal that already at the end of June we already didn’t use the option on his contract,” said Beirer, “so hearing him saying that it’s so negative getting the news at the end of August, he and his management were informed that we didn’t use the option.
“Since there it’s a little bit of a strange situation, and from now we need to look into the future of the project and order the puzzle together how we think it will help the project. Of course we are fighting for ground, fighting for positions, and we want to be better than seventh position with a fantastic rider like Brad Binder.
“Now we are trying to create the mid term future and we decided that it’s not OK to go on with Remy.
“I don’t want to put out any new points about what he should comment, because I want to talk to him in person and not through the media. Like I said, he is a really nice kid and we want to keep the relationship with him.”
When asked about the rumour that Moto2 championship contender Augusto Fernandez (who inherited Gardner’s title-winning Red Bull KTM Ajo machine in the middleweight class) would move up to replace Gardner, Beirer didn’t deny that he was “of course” an option.
