After the public dismissal of Martin Bayer by tyre sponsor AKA, we thought it prudent to allow 5th place Worlds finisher Martin a response:
“I am very surprised and even more sad for the action & decision of my tire sponsor because I have worked very hard and acted very professionally representing AKA in the best possible way all the time.
After the World Championship semi-finals I have personally discussed in an open discussion with the AKA owner Mark Pavidis, presented at the track, my planned tire strategy for the A-main. Mark did not raise a single issue or concern of me planning to run different tires for the A-main final and as such I decided to use a different tire for the A-main final.
If Mark issued during our discussion any concerns or would disagree with my plan I would of course professionaly and fairly follow my sponsorship agreement. To follow any agreement in a professional way has been always my personal absolute priority and like until now during my entire racing career and in personal life I would never break any agreement.
Thanks to everyone in AKA for supporting me during all years together.
I wish them all best for future. Martin Bayer”
Update: A final response from AKA’s Mark Pavidis:
“I want to clear things up as the story Martin tells in his statement is NOT how this scenario happened. First off I have a ton of respect for Martin both on and off the track. With that being said Martin did come to me after the semi with questions about tires for the final. He said he was getting pressure from Xray to make a tire change and run the Proline tires.
He asked me his thoughts. I said “I cannot make your decisions for you and you need to make this decision”. Going back even further to when I was in Germany for the Euros he had some pressure about tires and I agreed he could try Proline tires in a qualifier to get his opinion. I watched his car all week so it was easy to see the advantages and disadvantages when he tried this. This was his worst qualifier all week and I think it even surprised himself.
David Ronnefalk won the Euros on Catapult tires that weekend. I never once pressured Martin to switch cars seeing that his car was clearly off pace. Now with all this being said I have an email from Martin explaining in his own words why he did what he did and completely understood why we had to do what we did. AKA has supported Martin for a long time and it was one of the hardest decisions to let my friend of so many years go from the team. There will be races when your stuff wont be perfect if its your tires, car or engine. But they are your sponsors thru the good and the bad”
