October 09, 2009
Published on tags: Superleague
In what many are seeing as a shock move, team principal and Number 1 race driver Wayne Mullins has sacked his fellow countryman Gavin Thomas after a series of under-par performances.

The move will likely come as a shock considering the long standing friendship and history together in motor sport of the two; however Mullins was adamant that his decision was the right one.

Team Principal Mullins released the following statement.

?fter the disappointment of yet another race ruined and points lost by simple errors and mistakes, it fell to me to consider where this team is going and how best to get there. My decision to give the drive to Gavin was, at the time, the right thing to do. I was still getting up to speed myself and thought that it would be a great benefit to have someone in the team with me who I knew personally and who could help develop setups and strategies for the race weekend. However in the 7 or so races Gavin has been in my team he has failed to live up to expectations and has on average completed only around 5 laps per race, failing to even get into several of the races due to ?erver issues?and poor communication with the tech staff.?

?fter yet another poor showing in Italy where his race was curtailed due to an incident involving a cat? It was felt to be in the best interests of all parties if Thomas was allowed to pursue options away from Gear F1. It is with great disappointment that our working relationship has had to end this way, but given the highly competitive nature of the GPVWC series and the need to manage a car right till the end of a race, it was felt that we would be better served trying to find a driver who could be in contention for points on a regular basis.?

? felt it was in the best interest of the team to act sooner rather than later in order to give the new second driver the chance to get to know the team before the end of the season, giving them every opportunity to start next season fully up to speed.?

? would like to thank Gavin Thomas for his efforts while racing for the Gear F1 Team and look forward to seeing him race in someone else? car.?

Rumours that Mullins had already lined up a secret second driver to replace Thomas before the Italian GP are being refuted by the Welsh/Italian team? top brass, but an announcement is expected shortly regarding the now vacant seat.

The underlying reasons for the sacking as not yet known, but many insiders believe that Team Principal Mullins felt that while he had been challenging for podiums and high points scoring places in recent races, Thomas had not advanced as hoped and it was unclear where the extra speed needed to compete was going to come from.