Former Petronas Yamaha SRT team principal and future WithU RNF Yamaha boss Razlan Razali has apologised to his former title sponsor – just days before the Sepang Racing Team formally ceases to exist.
The Malaysian boss recently criticised Petronas’ decision not to continue supporting the team until the 2022 season.
Initial negotiations for a new sponsorship deal are said to have collapsed because they never gave him the chance to finalise a new deal.
Razali on Monday issued an official statement to Petronas on Monday, and distanced himself from the words mentioned in the article. However, he’s not mention Petronas by name at any point, the articles in question obviously refer to Petronas’ termination as title sponsor of the Sepang Racing Team.
“I sincerely regret on the outcome of how the articles were written and the impact they have received. It was never my intention to create any friction between myself and the parties involved. With that, I apologise if the parties mentioned by these journalists are offended in any way.” Razali wrote.
“We have mutually agreed that the partnership have reached its purpose and objectives and given the economic situation globally due to the pandemic, I respect the decision made by the title partner to discontinue with the team.
“The team together with its title partner have achieved and accomplished so much in the three years of our collaboration and I thank our partner for the commitment and support given as we concluded on a positive note at the last race in Valencia.” he added.
The new RNF MotoGP team founded by Razali will start next season in the MotoGP premier class track with former Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso and newcomer Darryn Binder. The good news Italian energy company WithU will act as title sponsor.
