Pull out your hankerchiefs, because FB Corse has issued another press release, this time stating all their bitterness towards the Hopkins saga, which reads like an Italian melodrama.

Less than two weeks ago FB Corse in a press release complained of how the foreign press was spreading “partially incorrect and conflicting information” and confirming that “ “John just can’t wait to to get to know and test the three cylinder bike, more than any other bike from a smaller championship” has to now acknowledge that Hopkins has decided to stay in the States and race in the AMA.

FB Corse is still also stating that they intend to race the entire 2010 MotoGP season with their three-cylinder motorcycle and talking to motocorse.com said that they are not listed in the recent provisional MotoGP list due to bureaucratic reasons, because Dorna and FIM want to see the results of their test results before deciding if the bike is competitive and entering their name on the list.

FB Corse insists that next month’s Milan launch (February 11th at Virgin Radio Station) will go ahead as planned and that they have chosen a new rider and according to Australian website Motonline and Italy’s Gpone, the new rider will be Garry McCoy, who was recently ousted from his Triumph Supersport World ride in favour of Jason DiSalvo.

Translated FB Corse press release after the jump.

“FB Corse must reluctantly announce that following explicit requests from John Hopkins management, our team is obliged to terminate the collaboration agreement with the Californian rider, even before he tested our bike on track. These last few weeks have seen an increasing amount of disquieting elements that have brought to light interests, consultants and sponsors contrary to the personal wishes that were initally expressed and shared. Keeping firmly in mind our work, we had to continue in the best possibile way to avoid any further damages.

Considering the frenzy generated by the media, which was involuntary and certainly was not to our advantage, we wish to clarify that this unexpected situation was not wanted by FB Corse, but spurred by outside parties who were hostile to our project and was aimed towards other championships.

We had recently booked two airline tickets (the last for February 4th) so we could have John in Italy. It is now clear that this commitment was deliberately not wanted by the other party.

A persistant positive attitude and a verbal interest towards the 34100 (by the rider himself and people close to him) today appear in strong contrast with what happened. Substantially, the preference fell on a less demanding local championship rather than seriously embrace our ambitious, but also challenging World challenge.

The rider’s manager after months of requests and negotiations that we always accepted and discussed, gradually entrenched himself behind an unprofessional silence and arriving at the point that in the last two weeks he refused to talk to us and communication was limited to one very cold email, despite having previously planned several actitivies together.

The team launch is programmed next February in Milan and we will only have individuals and companies that can completely and firmly espouse our project for what it really is, in terms of sports and humanity. A new rider has already been found, a top rider with proven experience in all of the major world championship categories, and is a good development rider, but we will reveal who it is at the Team Launch.

FB Corse owner Andrea Ferrari also added: “I’m very disappointed of how things went. On our part we tried to offer the best we could, in common and mutal interest. In short we found ourselves with an about-face that leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, also because of how it was handled.”

“They told us just yesterday, with no valid reasons or even directly speaking to us, that John could no longer come to Europe, for the umpteenth time, and would not even test for us until least until after having raced in the first AMA race. I’m sorry, especially for the people who are working on this project, who until a few days ago heard that the other party intended to go ahead, as agreed. These new conditions are no longer acceptable to our team.”

Source | bikeracing and motomatters

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