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Sauber says it cannot understand Giedo van der Garde's statement following the settlement of their legal dispute but will not engage the Dutchman in a "mud fight via the media".

On Wednesday Van der Garde confirmed he had reached a settlement with Sauber after their bitter legal battle in the days leading up to the Australian Grand Prix. Courts in Switzerland and Australia said the Dutchman had the right to drive for the team in 2015 but a temporary resolution was found before the Melbourne opener.

In a remarkable statement released after the settlement Van der Garde criticised Sauber's handling of the dispute and said he did not pursue his legal right to drive for the team out of fear of the ramifications. Sauber responded on Wednesday afternoon announcing its surprise at his statement but insisting it would not address the points raised by the Dutchman.

The team released a statement of its own to Facebook saying: "Many of you read today's statement on Giedo van der Garde's Facebook page. So have we and we were, indeed, rather surprised. 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.

"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. 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."

It signed off the message with a picture and an accompanying hashtag saying #LetsRaceNotFight.

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