Persistent rumours that Leon Haslam,
currently second in the World Superbike series, would be jumping ship
for 2011 have been confirmed by a press release from his employer,
Alstare Suzuki.
The team started strong this season,
with Haslam on top of the standings for the first half of the
calendar, but then the Aprilia team came on strong with Max Biaggi
riding at a strong and consistent pace.
Haslam and the Alstare group believed
that they weren’t getting the development support from Suzuki, and
voiced their displeasure with the situation more than once during the
season. Haslam’s contract apparently has a clause allowing him to opt
out of the second year of the two-year deal if factory support was
not forthcoming, so …
Interestingly, the announcement was
made by Alstare rather than Haslam, and in the statement Alstare
owner Francis Batta states that even a trip to Japan hadn’t gotten a
decision by the promised date.
Haslam is almost certainly going to
replace Ruben Xaus at the BMW squad, joining veteran Troy Corser,
while Batta is unlikely to be getting much help from Suzuki in future
after airing dirty laundry as publicly as he has.
