Booth-Amos assault video: Team terminates employment of staff member

The incident, which occurred at the 2019 Buriram round, only surfaced on social media during last weekend’s return to Thailand.

Booth-Amos - who has since left the grand prix paddock - confirmed the authenticity of the footage, while the CIP team the Englishman was riding for issued an apology.

The staff member in question had since left CIP but is still in the paddock, working for another Moto3 team.

However, today's statement confirms the staff member will cease to be employed after the last of the flyaway races, in Malaysia, later this month.

The full statement can be seen below.

Statement from the FIM, IRTA and Dorna

Wednesday, 05 October 2022

'Statement from the Championship following the recently published images regarding an incident that occurred at the 2019 Thai GP involving a dispute between a Moto3 rider and a member of his team, who is seen physically assaulting him:

'The video of this incident was widely shared on social media and the actions of the team member in question raised immediate and serious concerns. The FIM, IRTA and Dorna Sports strongly condemn this behaviour.

'Furthermore, it was learned that the person in question continues to work in the paddock and is now employed by a different team, which was unaware of this incident.

'The team has decided to terminate the employment of this staff member, who will not be returning to work for them after the Malaysian Grand Prix.

'The FIM, alongside IRTA and Dorna Sports, considers this to be the correct decision and fully supports the action taken by the team in terminating this person’s contract.

'Abusive behaviour must not and will not be tolerated. All parties will continue to work to make the MotoGP Paddock the safest possible working environment.'

Booth-Amos left grand prix at the end of 2019 and now competes in the World Supersport series.

Booth-Amos: 'I was asked to not say anything and I kept quiet'

Booth-Amos said: “The video that has appeared is from the 2019 Thai Grand Prix. There were a lot of issues with the team that year that were never spoken about and I kept quiet just to try and keep my ride for the 2020 season as it was my dream to stay in that paddock.

“This happened after the race when my bike broke down due to a mechanic’s error, I was asked to not say anything and I kept quiet.

“I never told anyone including Dorna or my management at the time.

“That’s just one thing that happened that year, people don’t know what goes on behind the TV screen.”

CIP: 'Violence of any kind is not acceptable in our sport and beyond'

CIP then issued the following statement: “About the video from 2019, on behalf of the team, we strongly denounce this kind of behaviour, and we want to publicly apologise to Tom Booth-Amos.

“A team is not the effort of one person but of a whole group of people.

“That’s why the technician is no longer involved in our team. 

“Violence of any kind is not acceptable in our sport and beyond.

“We have taken all the necessary measures to ensure that it does not happen again in the future.”