Ioda Racing: Leon Camier situation ‘very hard’

Ioda Racing boss Giampiero Sacchi has spoken of his disappointment at not being able to go ahead with a 2014 MotoGP deal for British rider Leon Camier.

Former British Superbike champion Camier signed a deal with the Italian squad in January to ride an Aprilia ART machine.

But when the official entry list was unveiled last week, the ex-Suzuki and Aprilia World Superbike rider’s name no longer featured.

Ioda Racing is struggling to fill a large shortfall in its budget after the late departure of 2013 title sponsor Came.

Ioda Racing missed the first two pre-season tests in Sepang but has arrived in Qatar today for the final winter showdown, with Danilo Petrucci riding an Aprilia ART machine.

Sacchi told MCN in Doha tonight he was still seeking the additional investment to run Camier on a second ART package, but he conceded it was looking a tough prospect, with the new season kicking off in Qatar on March 23.

Sacchi said: “The situation is very hard and very difficult because we lost our sponsor. I am still working very hard but in this moment, being realistic I have to say that the maximum we can do is one rider in MotoGP. We have a lot of contacts in progress and I hope we can sort something, but it is certainly not easy. At the moment we don’t have a title sponsor. We have arranged some deals with other companies but they are not title sponsors. I have been in contact with Leon a lot but unfortunately we only lost the sponsor at the end of January and this put us in a really big difficulty. If you know this in September you can move but this is the reality and nothing was signed.”