Yamaha’s satellite MotoGP team will announce a replacement title sponsor at Misano next month, having made official its impending split with Petronas.
As reported by The Race earlier this month, team principal Razlan Razali and director Johan Stigefelt will carry on with the MotoGP entry in 2022, with the news of a Misano announcement on September 16 aligning fully with the understanding that the team has secured its partner WithU – an Italian energy supplier – as a title sponsor.
Likewise, as reported, the Moto2 and Moto3 arms of the operation will cease operating.
In the statement, both Razali and Stigefelt thanked Petronas and the Malaysian Sepang circuit, which is due to end its stint as team’s owner and hand over the reins directly to the duo.
“We have experienced a remarkable voyage over the past years,” Razali said. “From a small start in 2015 there was a great step for us in 2018 when we secured an entry to the premier class of MotoGP and built a MotoGP squad from scratch.
“In 2019 we were on the grid and just four races into our rookie season we were on the front row. By the seventh race we were on the podium.
“In 2020 we secured the first race win for a satellite Yamaha MotoGP team in over 20 years and finished second in the overall team and rider championships.
“In 2021 we raced with the ‘Greatest of all Time’ rider, Valentino Rossi.
“This is an incredible story.”
Stigefelt added that he was “sad” that the Petronas partnership was ending, as “our vision was for this to be a long-term project”.
“For the future we have a new and exciting project,” he said. “We remain in the paddock in MotoGP with new shirts to wear. But more of that later; for now we have the remaining races of the 2021 season to race as hard as possible.”
Moto3 rider Darryn Binder, who was understood to have a deal in place to move up to Moto2 with the outfit before the news, is increasingly expected to be joined by Andrea Dovizioso in an all-new line-up for the new-look MotoGP team in 2022.
