Rumours have emerged in the paddock this morning that Ingram have not paid for Jean Mattson's contract in it's entirety themselves, something not agreed with Meteor. VirtualSport approached Meteor in the paddock prior to the season finale to ask if the rumours were true. Boss, Kazuki Armos replied, 'I would hope not, I was flexible with Ingram and made a very generous deal - I'm furious.
Prior to Ingram announcing Mattson as a driver, there were rumours that a deal between Mattson and Franklin was due to be struck. 'Yes it was! That's true, we had a verbal agreement more or less that if Ingram didn't want him, he would probably swing that way. I offered a tag of £5 million'. However, the latest rumours have emerged that Ingram have only paid a fraction of the deal that was offered to them. In response to the monetary clause being achieved, Armos responded, 'I offered Ingram the same £5 million deal. I think they can afford it. However, when Jamie came back to me, he had initially said that he would rather Ingram signed Mattson, he decided he wanted to back out the deal. Ingram seemed pretty persistent in wanting a lower figure, Meteor as a racing team are hesitant to drop significantly especially when we have a better offer on the table, but as this was not the case, we dropped the figure by £1.5 million, I thought they would pay this, that was their request!.' 'I know understand that Franklin paid 50% of the Mattson figure from the persistent rumours - that's not what we agreed. I made this deal to respect Ingram's finances, had I known Franklin were involved in this deal I would not have made a deal at £3.5 million, I would not have dropped it from the initial price tag. At no point was Franklin mentioned, this team was not in our contract. At this moment, I feel like locking the door on Metoer'. Following this, Kazuki Armos fed an official statement into the paddock to confirm the news. 'Recently we announced we had parted ways with Jean Mattson after striking a deal with Ingram. Meteor Motorsport however feel our trust has been betrayed. Meteor Motorsport made a generous deal with Ingram and no other team. We are now aware that Ingram paid only 50% of the fee, something we were not contractually aware of when making the deal and would not have agreed to. We would not have produced such a deal'. VirtualSport have since approached Ingram for a comment, but as of yet, no response has been received.
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