The Sepang Racing Team will retire from all three classes of the World Championship at the end of the 2021 season, only to be renamed as RNF Racing. The structure will then only race in MotoGP, with Razali and the current team manager, Wilco Zeelenberg, at the helm.
In recent weeks, however, a rift has arisen between Razlan Razali and Johan Stigefelt. This was confirmed by the official announcement of the RNF, which took place last weekend at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, in which not the slightest mention was made of the latter.
During the Misano weekend, Motorsport.com asked Razali what the situation was, and the Malaysian manager said: “Well, I mean that in the last three years we have been a team of more than 60 people.”
“So, of course, with the changes in the team we couldn’t continue in Moto3 and Moto2, so our line-up has been reduced by about half. I think we will be 29 next year.”
“Mainly, Johan’s role was to take care of Moto2 and Moto3, so, having only MotoGP, I made the decision that only Wilco and I can take care of it.”
“So, we have reached a mutual agreement with Johan to take different directions”.
At first it seemed that the split between the two sides could have an impact on Darryn Binder’s future, given the South African had reached an agreement that would lead him to make the leap from Moto3 to MotoGP with Stigefelt.
However, Yamaha and RNF announced last week that Binder will be Andrea Dovizioso’s teammate and that he will have a 2021 M1 at his disposal next year.
Darryn Binder, Andrea Dovizioso, RNF Racing, Razlan Razali, founder and team principal, RNF Racing, Matteo Ballarin, president of Europe Energy Group
Photo by: RNF Racing
Yamaha also announced a one-season deal with RNF for 2022, which includes an option for an extension of at least another two years.
Razali explained that the expectations were different, but he also added that there were problems related to the fact that RNF is an entity that is only a few weeks old.
“With the squad situation, we had to create a new entity in Great Britain,” explained Razali. “And for Yamaha, being a new company, we needed to respect the Security Trade Group.”
“It was a question of compliance with Yamaha, which is a large Japanese company. Due to the lack of precedent with the new entity, we could only make a one-year deal with an extension for the following seasons.”
“We will try to extend the agreement for the following year by mid-June, and so on. The offer does not live up to our expectations, but I respect their decision due to these compliance issues,” he concluded.
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