Liberty Ducati have this evening issued an outrageous press release which cites poor results as the reason behind the split with their most successful rider, Sylvain Guintoli.

Guintoli turned up at Brno only to find he didn't have a bike to ride and immediately invoked a clause in his contract and broke free of the team. Now, a few hours later, Liberty have countered, saying his achievements, which include a race win, are poor when compared to the investment made in the Frenchman.

Guintoli and team-mate Jakub Smrz are meant to be paid by the team while Maxime Berger and the injured Brett McCormick pay to ride. Berger will race this weekend.

Departing from our usual, the entire press release is below, as it has to be seen to be believed:

The Liberty Racing Team, considering what happened in the last hours, wishes to clarify its position and the factors that influenced the events that led to the end the collaboration with the rider Sylvain Guintoli:

- First of all, the poor results achieved by the rider, for sure inappropriate in relation to the massive investments, technical equipment and human efforts offered to him, and the relative lack of media return to the main sponsor, created a subsequent reduction of investments by the same sponsor as already shown in the past;

- For Liberty CZ Group is very important to rationalize the costs in order to defend the continuity of the team’s life, considering also the temporary period of global crisis, which has raised the alert level of the company in the recent past;

-The technical staff decided to take a tough stance in this moment of nervous strain created by misunderstandings with the administrative direction of the group;

- Detection of superficiality and lightness in the management of the internal team problems, with unnecessary use of media gossip, this is a not professional behavior, that damaged the trust relationship built into several months of collaboration;

- The team will still give space and continuity to the young riders, a company policy much more in line with the development of the Effenbert brand.

The Liberty Racing Team, like clear expressed before, shows his regret for what happened, according to the choice made by the rider and the technical staff, confirms its will to continue in the future with the constructive purpose that has always distinguished the Liberty Racing Team.

The team would like to make its best wishes to Sylvain Guintoli and all technical staff for their respective careers.