Remy Gardner moved to support his manager Paco Sanchez after his father Wayne accused him of costing the 24-year-old his MotoGP seat.
Gardner’s future is uncertain after his debut season in the premier class, as he was let go by KTM. The 2021 Moto2 champion claims that KTM told him he wasn’t “professional enough” to keep his ride, but Pit Beirer, the brand’s Motorsports Director, has openly refuted that allegation.
In any case, he is no longer a part of Tech3, which will become GasGas Factory Racing next year. At the end of the current season, Augusto Fernandez is most likely to take his place. Remy Gardner is now defending his personal manager on Twitter after receiving criticism from his father.
“I am very sorry for the words of Wayne Gardner against my manager @PacoSanchez_ZSM. Paco isn’t responsible for my KTM exit, and I fully trust in his professionalism and honesty. Together we will find a new project to continue enjoying this sport that I love so much,” the 24-year-old wrote on Twitter Wednesday morning.
In the days leading up to the just concluded San Marino Grand Prix, Wayne Gardener, the 1987 500cc world champion, tweeted that Sanchez was an “incompetent clown.”
“Finally the GP paddock is waking up to Paco the [clown] blatant lies and incompetent management skills which unfortunately has cost Remy Gardner MotoGP career.”
In the days following the Misano race, he tweeted a little more restrained statement before retweeting that post himself.
“It’s very sad to see Remy MotoGP future coming will end in 2022 because of his So called manager Paco Sanchez ridiculous behavior with KTM,” the tweet read. “Remy has the talent and potential to win but he needs many changes in his inner circle of management team and other areas.”
Beirer had also attacked Sanchez in May in German media, calling rider management “the biggest plague that has befallen the paddock in recent years, except from corona[virus].”
Wayne further criticized KTM for “forgetting” that his son is the most recent Moto2 class world champion and disagreed with claims that Remy is unprofessional.
In an interview with pundit Simon Crafar on MotoGP’s television world feed, Beirer claimed that neither he nor the other two management figures in KTM/Tech3 accountable for Gardner, namely Team Manager Herve Poncharal and the Vice President Motorsports Road Racing & WP Factory Racing, Jens Hainbach had told him he had been fired for failing to act professionally enough.
However, other remarks in that tense exchange do hint at why the decision might have been made to fail on renewing Gardener’s contract.
“At the moment I feel like we need to work on the bike side, improve our bike and give the riders a better base,” admitted Beirer during the interview. “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.”
Incidentally, Beirer also refuted Gardner’s claims that he learned KTM would not take his contract as an option during the Austrian race two weeks ago, alleging that he or his manager were informed at the “end of June.”
In last weekend’s race at Misano, Gardner finished outside the points in 19th place, six positions behind teammate Raul Fernandez, who will ride for RNF Aprilia starting 2023.
