Razlan Razali owns the structure of the Sepang Racing Team, which today has teams in the MotoGP world, Moto2 and Moto3. However, the departure of Petronas as the main sponsor meant that Petronas had to give up the Moto2 and Moto3 teams in order to secure its place in the premier class of motorcycle racing.
‘In the months of June, July and August we assumed a future together with Petronas. Our philosophy was to encourage young drivers. When Petronas gave up, my goal was to save the two precious MotoGP places next to Dorna, because if you give that up, you will never come back. It became a question of survival. The question was, how can we keep the MotoGP team going? To save the MotoGP plans, we had to cut back with the Moto3 and Moto2 teams, the official said in an interview with Speedweek.
Therefore, it was also necessary to change the team’s philosophy regarding the attitude of drivers:
– In this sport, MotoGP is a business. I have to follow the wishes of the investors and that’s why our driver selection philosophy has changed. At the same time, we have an excellent relationship with Yamaha. They want us to develop new talent, but Yamaha managers also understand our new situation with the team’s new sponsor. So we agreed. We have hired [Andrea] Dovizioso, which meant a departure from the original philosophy. We have also signed Moto3 rider Darryn Binder [Brad Binder’s brother]. That was a big risk.
It should be noted that Razali’s new MotoGP team will leave the name ‘Petronas Yamaha SRT’ and will be the ‘WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team’.