Appeal Stewards Reject Leopard Racing's Protest On Pierer Group Bikes
Categories: Moto3
For Dennis Foggia and Leopard Racing the 2022 Moto3 season does not go to plan. Now, a protest by Leopard Racing on the Pierer Group bikes has been rejected too.
With being 42 points behind the championship leader it’s probably safe to say Dennis Foggia and Leopard racing are more or less out of the championship fight.
However, in an attempt to reduce the gap to the leaders after the Italian Grand Prix in Mugello, the management team surrounding Miodrag Kotur had protested all bikes by Pierer Group manufacturers.
Leopard Racing demanded nothing more from the GP officials than the cancellation of all World Championship points for all Pierer group manufacturers – at least from Doha to Mugello.
This protest was rejected by the “FIM MotoGP Stewards Panel” in the afternoon at Mugello on May 29.
In their protest Leopard Racing referred to the wiring of the bike and the inclusion of these into the “performance parts” group.
The specifications of the performace parts had been frozen in 2021. To reduce costs performance parts have to be used unmodified until the end of the 2023 season.
Stefan Pierer (Pierer Group CEO) might have been a little surprised about the accusations – Image provided by Motorsport Images
According to Leopard Racing, all bikes by Pierer-Group manufacturers had wiring looms that had been changed for the Italian Grand Prix.
Leopard had submitted their protest right away but had been rejected by the FIM Steward Panel. Now, their appeal to the Appeal Stweards has been rejected, too.
Christian Korntner, Moto3 project leader of Pierer Mobility Group summarized in an interview with Speedweek.com:
“The accusation from Leopard was that our teams are racing illegally in the 2022 Moto3 World Championship because we have supposedly made changes to the wiring harnesses.”
He continues: “But these changes already happened with us last year in agreement with the responsible officials – for the 2022 season.”
