Saturday, 3rd November 2018 – Sepang International Circuit (SIC) and Yamaha Motor Company today formalized their partnership in supporting the participation of PETRONAS Yamaha Sepang MotoGP™ Team in the 2019 FIM MotoGP™ World Championship. The new team, which will be carrying the title sponsorship from PETRONAS, will be fielding Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Quartararo as their riders.
The two parties signed the agreement in the Press Conference Room at the sidelines of the on-going Shell Malaysia Motorcycle Grand Prix 2018, which enters its second day today.
SIC was represented by its Chief Executive Officer, Dato Razlan Razali while Yamaha Motor Company was represented by Lin Jarvis, who is Yamaha Motor Racing Managing Director.
The signing of the landmark agreement witnessed by Malaysian Youth and Sports Minister, YB Tuan Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, Dorna CEO, Mr Carmelo Ezpeleta, SIC Chairman, Tan Sri Azman Yahya and Kouji Tsuya, who is the MotoGP Group Leader of Yamaha Motor Company, Datuk Seri Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir, Vice President or Marketing PETRONAS and Puan Zahariah(Liza) Abdul Rahman, Senior General Manager Group Strategic Communications PETRONAS.
Under the agreement, Yamaha Motor Company will be providing four (4) race bikes and engineering support for PETRONAS Yamaha Sepang MotoGP™ Team for the 2019, 2020 and 2021 MotoGP™ season.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, YB Tuan Syed Saddiq congratulated SIC, Yamaha and PETRONAS on formation of the MotoGP™ racing team; expressing hope that it would not just help in the making of racers amongst Malaysians, but also building a holistic development of auxiliary fields related to motorsports in the country including engineers and managers.
“These are exciting times in Malaysia. The fact that we have our very own MotoGP™ racing team showed the great interest by the Government in the development of motorsports in the country and SIC as the hub of motorsports,” the minister said.
Thanking Yamaha for their support and confidence, Dato’ Razlan said team, which will be based in Belgium, aimed to make an immediate impact in its first season with Morbidelli gunning for the best independent rider and Quartararo to target for the best rookie award in 2019.
Jarvis, in his comments, said that Yamaha was fully committed to supporting the new team and although the initial agreement is for 3 years he hoped to work together for many years in the future in the MotoGP World Championship.
Mr Ezpeleta said he was delighted to have SIC as a key player in the premier class and Petronas, which was title sponsor for Yamaha Factory Racing few years back, is returning as key partner in MotoGP™.
He also said that Dorna was pleased with what SIC have done to the sports in the region; boosting its popularity which paved way for the introduction of Thailand Grand Prix this season.
