Shock disqualification in Moto3, Leopard team declares war on the powers that be: "Whatever it takes

Christian Lundberg, Leopard Racing technical director, talks about the disqualification of his Moto3 rider.

After the official statement, Leopard Racing also speaks out, reiterating its firm intention to prove its innocence at all costs. Technical director Christian Lundberg was interviewed during Moto3 qualifying to discuss what is effectively the case of the weekend: Adrian Fernandez’s disqualification from six of the seven GPs on record for a technical infringement. The Italian-Luxembourg team disputes the lack of evidence regarding the alleged tampering of the two engines and will disclose further details of its defense strategy in the coming days: after the FIM Stewards and the FIM Appeal Stewards, the case moves to the International Court of Appeal (CAI) at the Tribunal of the Canton of Vaud, in Switzerland, with an appeal to be filed within four days.

"They checked our engines at Mugello and then disqualified us for all the other races except that one. There’s no precedent for this", Lundberg began on Sky Sport MotoGP. What happened? "As often happens over the years, some of the engine stickers peel off slightly due to air. We had reported it, but by now we barely even notice it", he continued, adding that "In recent weeks we’ve had a few issues over other matters with the technical director and he wanted to punish us somehow. But he absolutely has no argument or proof that the engines were opened. It’s just his conjecture, and unfortunately Honda has also sided with him a bit". He then firmly reiterates: "We will clearly defend ourselves to the last judicial body, even if it means spending the entire 2026 budget on lawyers."

Leopard Racing’s technical director reiterates the absolute correctness of the team’s conduct and their confidence in being able to prove it. "Fortunately we can prove point by point that there is no anomaly," Lundberg continued. "We will show everyone an internal memo with HRC drawn up some time ago to highlight this type of anomalies [of the seals] on several delivered engines. It’s all fluff, there’s nothing true about it." Regarding the cited anomalies in the reports, "I can also say what they think they are: the torque settings were not the correct ones, which is impossible to verify. They say there was silicone on a gasket... Don’t we know it shouldn’t be there? Absurd things."

"There’s one thing that becomes fundamental from a legal standpoint: the lack of a legal chain of custody, which isn’t actually provided for", added Christian Lundberg. He then returned to the checks carried out at Mugello. "If they really wanted to catch us red-handed, they should have summoned us to parc fermé in the technical inspection bay and said, "Let’s open the seals together, let’s open the engine together". Instead, we weren’t allowed to do anything. The total lack of custody renders any evidence and any speculation void." Finally, as mentioned at the beginning, there are only a few days to file the next appeal with the CAI. "Perhaps by Wednesday morning we’ll say more about how we intend to formulate our defense," Lundberg concluded.

If you like the content from our news outlet, you can select it as a preferred source by clicking HERE