Petronas SRT Yamaha said they want to sign a young rider to replace Fabio Quartarao, who signed Monster Energy Yamaha for 2021.
However, Petronas promised they would welcome former the nine-time World Champiom Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi to join the team for 2021.
“We made an exception for Valentino Rossi because of the pandemic last year. Yamaha told us Velentino beginning last year or late 2019, but in a normal year, we would have evaluated.” Razali said.
“The intention if Valentino was out of the equation, we would look at young riders from Moto2 and Moto3 to develop them like we did with Fabio.
“Having Valentino is still an interesting proposition, but he would still be assessed and evaluated based on a normal year, but because we are not in a normal year, it’s important for the team to have stability and performance in 2021.” Razali added.
Razali expected Rossi to bring extra excitement to Petronas for 2021. The Italian rider will be in the pits alongside fellow countryman Franco Morbideli.
“We take this decision with Valentino because he knows the bike, he can provide a stability and he can still give the performance.” Razali said.
“It’s also like a challenge to see whether he can be back at his best with us, and we don’t mind taking that challenge. Our plan is always to undecover a new talent and develop that new talent for the team and for Yamaha.
“We will do our absolute best to assist him to be competitive to reward him for the trust he has in us as a team. We are humbled by this opportunity and ready to take on the challenge.
“We believe that the combinations of Valentino and Franco will provide a truly formidable force to track to help us in our goal of being as competitive as possible together in future.” Razali added.
