Tony Fernandez hit back at criticism toward him and claims that the Caterham Teams’ troubles are because of the current owners.

After a strongly worded statement was released by the current owners of the Caterham F1 Team pointing out Tony Fernandez was to blame for their issues. The Malaysian businessmen has broken his silence on the matter and maintains that he’s not to blame.

In his statement he claims that in order for him to transfer his shares. Certain conditions had to be fulfilled. These conditions have not been met by Engavest, which resulted him in retaining ownership of the team. The condition according to the statement was that “all existing and future creditors” had to be payed before Fernandes could transfer his shares. This comes after Engavest had claimed that they have paid all the creditors.

Below is the statement from Tony Fernandes:

“In June 2014, I decided, together with my co-shareholders, to sell my stake in the Caterham F1 team,” read the statement

“We agreed in good faith to sell the shares to a Swiss company named ‘Engavest’ on the basis that Engavest undertook to pay all of the existing and future creditors, including the staff.

“The continued payment of staff and creditors was so important to me that I ensured that the shares would not be transferred to the new buyers unless they complied with this condition.

“Sadly, Engavest has failed to comply with any of the conditions in the agreement and Caterham Sports Ltd (the UK operating company of the F1 team) has had to be put into administration by the bank, with large sums owing to numerous creditors.

“Our agreement with Engavest was very clear: there was no legal obligation to transfer the shares to them unless certain conditions – which included paying creditors – were met.

“Those conditions have not been met. Our lawyers have asked Engavest several times to comply with these conditions but they have failed to engage.

“If you agree to buy a business, you must pay its bills. They have breached that promise and now, sadly, it is others such as the employees and the fans of the Caterham F1 team that will suffer if the team ceases to race. I sincerely hope that this will not be the case and that a solution can be found.”

Fernandes took to Twitter last night tweeting a rather blunt response to what he thinks of the situation: