Jim Ratcliffe said Ineos would not hesitate to suspend the WorldTour team if misconduct was discovered within the team.

The comments come as former British Cycling and Team Sky (the former name of Team Ineos) staff members face questions related to the General Medical Council's (GMC) lawsuit against doctor Richard Freeman. Freeman, who initially denied the claims, admitted that in 2011 he ordered sachets of Testogel, a testosterone preparation, from British Cycling and Team Sky's headquarters in Manchester. The pills were allegedly ordered to treat athletes, which Freeman denies.

Freeman resigned from his position in 2017 and now faces the Medical Appeal Service after the GMC filed 22 allegations of misconduct. Freeman is contesting only four cases, all of which relate to the test gel order and its motive.

In an interview with The Times, Ratcliffe reiterated his words from earlier this year that Ineos was running a clean operation and had done thorough due diligence before taking over sponsorship from Sky this spring.

"Dave [Brailsford] is going to have to deal with that side of things. If Dave has any problems in the future, he's going to have to deal with them. Nothing is happening with our team," Ratcliffe told The Times.

According to Ratcliffe, his confidence in his team's current approach stems from the high level of due diligence his legal team conducted before agreeing to sponsor the Brailsford team for approximately £40 million. The team has won the Tour de France every year since 2012, with the exception of 2014 when Chris Froome crashed out.

"We checked all the procedures, everything, the doctors' records," Ratcliffe said. 'There wasn't a lot of legal work involved in acquiring the cycling team, but we did spend a lot of time doing due diligence on the team. We had outside attorneys check them out, and we looked at procedures and tests. We took it seriously. The regulations and Team Sky procedures at the time of the acquisition were the most sophisticated and rigorous in cycling.

"Our chief counsel, who is responsible for compliance throughout Ineos, was responsible for compliance in cycling. And if he told me he had a concern, that was the end of it for us. If something like that comes into our world, we will be out of cycling. I don't think that will happen."

On the eve of the Tour de Yorkshire in May, Ratcliffe, Brailsford, and Chris Froome announced the Team Ineos colors. Brailsford and Froome were asked about the team's decision to stop using the Ocean Rescue livery for the 2018 season and to work with one of the largest plastic producers in less than a year. At the same time, Ratcliffe was asked about the credibility of the team he just agreed to support.

Part of Team Sky's success came at a time when UKAD launched a 14-month investigation into a suspicious package delivered to the team at the 2011 Criterium du Dauphiné. The parcel was accused of containing triamcinolone, a corticosteroid banned in competitions where it is not exempt for therapeutic use, which the team denied.

The UKAD investigation ended without any charges of anti-doping being made, but a UKAD Select Committee later declared that "the credibility of Team Sky and British Cycling is in tatters and they are in a terrible position."

In 2017, an anti-doping case was filed against Chris Froome after he won the Vuelta a España, but he was later cleared of any wrongdoing by the UCI and WADA.

"The day something like that enters our world, we will be out of it," Ratcliffe said in May.

"I have no interest in improving performance in ways that it should not be used. I have no problem with slight performance gains, like better chainrings or better aerodynamics. That's not my game."

GMC's lawsuit against Freeman continues.

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Brailsford faces more questions as conflicting statements emerge

Timeline of UKAD investigation into Team Sky and British Cycling

Wiggins, Team Sky and British Cycling doping charges over mystery package None