After Giedo Van Der Garde voiced his dissatisfaction at Sauber and the way they handled his contract dispute, the Sauber F1 Team have released a statement of their own saying that they are surprised by what the young Dutchman has claimed.

In a statement  released on Facebook, the Sauber F1 Team have said that they are “rather surprised” by van der Garde’s intentions and they cannot understand the reasoning behind his scathing statement directed towards the team.

“Many of you read today’s statement on Giedo van der Garde’s Facebook page. So have we and we were, indeed, rather surprised,” read the statement from Sauber.

“We don’t know about Giedo’s intentions. He may try to present himself as a winner, while we had actually hoped to come to rest after our agreement. Giedo decided to take a different approach – the reasoning behind we cannot understand.”

The statement goes on to say that the team have answers to the accusations made in the statement, but Sauber will not be drawn into a mud slinging match in the media.

“We’d have very good answers to the many statements and accusations in Giedo’s post. But to expand on this wouldn’t help our race team nor our fans and partners. It would only encourage a mud fight via the media and we will not lend ourselves to that.”

Sauber have made it clear that they have put the matter behind them and that they are now focusing on preparations for the upcoming Malaysian Grand Prix.

“The next race in Malaysia is where our focus is and that’s where we will build up on last weekend’s success together with our drivers Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr. All our efforts are drawn to this objective.

“With this in mind we’d like to encourage you to form your own opinion about what happened, however critical it may be. From our side we herewith close the matter and look already forward to celebrating future achievements at the race track together with you.”