Forward to sit out Indy

Forward Racing will miss the next round of the MotoGP world championship in Indianapolis. The team cited lost sponsorship as their primary reason but with financial authorities in Switzerland having frozen their assets in light of team principal, Giovanni Cuzari’s, arrest on fraud and money laundering charges there was little chance of them racing in America.

The team confirmed that they have lost sponsors as a result of the fallout from the arrest but that steps have been taken to improve the situation and put them back on sound financial footing in time for the Czech Grand Prix.

“Unfortunately, the reaction of the sponsors, the main source of income of an independent team, was immediate and resolute,” said the Forward team in a statement. “Inevitably some of them cancelled the existing contracts and interrupted payments, creating further financial troubles that could jeopardise completely the survival of the Team.”

With their assets frozen, standard practice in a case such as this, and sponsors having left the team took steps to find an agreement with IRTA, the teams association, to miss one round of the championship. As a result Stefan Bradl and Loris Baz will sit on the sidelines for this race and Lorenzo Baldassarri and SImone Corsi will not race in Moto2.

Marco Curioni, the managing director of the team, commented on the situation:

“It was a very difficult week for the Forward Racing,” said Curioni. “Only in the last hours we have glimpsed the real possibility of overcome this situation. I hope to have Giovanni – who until proven to the contrary he is correct to assume innocent – soon with us and available to find a solution.  In this dark moment, several ‘partners’ and ‘friends’ have understandably distanced himself from the team and then for this reason I want to thank those who are helping us: Dorna and IRTA gave us full support from the beginning, all members of the team that they gave their unconditional support and those sponsors and the new companies – that despite the objective concerns – gave us confidence and are interpreting the meaning of sponsorship in the original reason: financial aid to allow the athlete to realise his talent”.