MotoGP | Avintia dismissal: Karel Abraham, “Disappointed by Ruben Xaus' behavior”

MotoGP Motorcycle World Championship 2020 – Karel Abraham was interviewed in Jerez where he went to collect the racing material such as suit, gloves, boots, by the Israeli TV commentator Tammy Gorali, as reported on Motomatters.com.

The Czech rider was fired via email from Team Avintia and after his first outburst in a press conference held in Brno, he returned to what happened on Friday evening.

Statements Karel Abraham Dismissal of Team Avintia on Ruben Xaus

“So many people were surprised, I was very surprised, because I absolutely didn't expect it. Well, you could say I should have expected it, the season hasn't been great. Yes, I agree, that's true, but okay, we had a two-year agreement. Friday evening, I opened my email and received an email from a notary. I opened it and it was in Spanish, not English or Czech and it said 'Hi Mr. Abraham, I am the notary of Esponsorama (the organization behind the Avintia team, ed.), these are the documents and papers. When we put it into a translator, it was clear that this was a termination of our contract. So we wrote to Ruben Xaus again 'Hey, what is this?' but we didn't get any response. The next day, Saturday, I texted him again saying 'Hey, look Ruben, I got this email in Spanish, I have no idea what's in it and I'm leaving for Jerez tomorrow, should I come to Jerez or not ?' Only then did I receive a message that said: “Exactly, it's the termination of the contract, don't come to Jerez' and stopped the conversation. I'm disappointed because he's always been a friendly guy, he borrowed my car, he came with me to the hotel and in Australia we spent a lot of time together, all very friendly. And then he says “Don't talk to me anymore'. So I was like, 'Are you serious? You're basically kicking my ass after the season is over and with a signed contract and you're not even talking to me?'”

Team Avintia seems to have terminated the contract due to the failure to pay the 2020 "fee" (remember that the Czech driver as well as his team-mate Tito Rabat, brings money to race, ed.), here too Abraham is keen to clarify the following.

“What you hear is half true. That's what they kicked me out for, but honestly, all of 2019 is paid for, there was no doubt about it. 2019 was fully paid for. There were some payments we needed to make for the 2020 season, but we haven't, not for months, we're talking days. We postponed them because we had doubts about things happening in the team. First of all, we postponed payments because we didn't get what we agreed in the contract, for example the Ohlins guy was missing and many other things happened. So we said hey, we want to talk about next season first and they said, OK, we'll talk in Malaysia, which we did, but there were new issues coming up, so we said let's talk about it one more time in Valencia. In Valencia we reached an agreement but I wanted to make some changes, so we sent some proposals, but we received no response other than the termination of the contract.”

Today in Jerez (the last test of 2019 is scheduled, ed.) it will not be Johann Zarco (the main candidate to replace Abraham astride the Ducati) who will take to the track with his bike, barring last-minute second thoughts, but the Team Avintia MotoE rider, Eric Granado.