The Petronas Yamaha has emerged in 2019 as the Sepang Racing Team’s bet in the premier class. And it did so in style on its debut, with rookie Fabio Quartararo surprising everyone. The now Team Principal and founder of the team, Razlan Razali, explained what led to the end of the collaboration with Yamaha, as well as the bet on Aprilia.
SRT would then be dropped by Petronas and signed with sponsor WithU, already with the team renamed RNF. Yamaha offered a one-year contract with the aim that the following year they would negotiate again if it was in the interest of both parties. The year 2022 went wrong. Andrea Dovizioso and Darryn Binder were unable to be competitive and after six Grand Prix neither of them had ten points (Dovi had eight and Binder six).
WithU announced their exit and Lin Jarvis – Managing Director of Yamaha Motor Racing and Team Principal of the Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP team – Razali offered a one-year contract, who then decided to change his mind and sign with Aprilia, ceding the leadership of the RNF to the new sponsor, who became the majority shareholder of the team.
The turning point came in May when Razali announced at Mugello that he had signed for two years with Aprilia, with a further option year: ‘MotoGP is a big business. We are in the pinnacle of two-wheel motorsport world championship. So, you need a long-term plan, you need a long-term strategy, from sponsors, from marketing, from whatever it is. And I can accept 2022 being only one year because of various circumstances, but I think in the middle of the year we have shown we have delivered, we have shown we have presented ourselves, we are fully equipped. It’s the same people from the former team, so you wonder why they [Yamaha] couldn’t give me a multi-year agreement.’
The RNF partners were not comfortable with just a one-year Yamaha connection, which led Razali to look at other options. The Noale factory offered a two-year deal plus an optional extra, which Razali was satisfied with, as he told autosport.com:
– They want us to beat them. And that is nice to hear, because the relationship is not a customer/client relationship, it’s more of a partnership. And that’s what I’ve been asking for all this time.