The Sepang Racing Team will withdraw from all three classes of the MotoGP World Championship at the end of the 2021 season and will be renamed RNF Racing.
RNF will continue to operate only in the MotoGP class, with Razali and the current SRT team manager Wilco Zeelenberg at the helm.
A rift is believed to have developed between Stigefelt and Razali in recent weeks, with the RNF’s official team announcement not mentioning Stigefelt last weekend during the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
When asked by Motorsport.com over the weekend in Misano what the situation was like at Stigefelt, Razali said, “Well, I mean, in the last three years we’ve been a team of more than 60 people.
“So of course we couldn’t continue with Moto3 and Moto2 with the team changes, so our crew has been reduced to almost half. I think we’re looking at 29 team members for next year.
“First and foremost, Johan’s role was to take care of Moto2 and Moto3, so next year, as I’m only MotoGP, I made the decision that we could deal with me and Wilco.
“Therefore we had mutually agreed with Johan to go in a different direction.”
The alleged rift between the two parties is believed to have an impact on Darryn Binder, who is moving from Moto3 to RNF next year, with the South African closing the deal with Stigefelt.
However, Yamaha and RNF announced last week that Binder will join the team with factory-backed Andrea Dovizioso – with rookie Binder, the younger brother of KTM rider Brad, getting a 2021 spec M1.
Darryn Binder, Andrea Dovizioso, RNF Racing, Razlan Razali, Founder and Team Principal, RNF Racing, Matteo Ballarin, President of the Europe Energy Group
Photo by: RNF Racing
Yamaha also announced a one-year contract with SRT for 2022, with an option to extend it for at least two more years.
Razali says this offer “was not what we expected,” but stated that it was due to trade compliance issues due to the fact that RNF was an entity that was formed only a few weeks ago.
“Given the team’s situation, I had to start a new unit in the UK,” explained Razali.
“And for Yamaha, [with us] As a new company, we had to conform to the Security Trade Group.
“The point is that Yamaha is a big Japanese company.
“Due to the lack of a track record with the new unit, etc., due to all these corporate governance compliance issues, they were only able to give us a one-year contract with an extension for the following years.
“We’ll see by mid-June to see if they’ll confirm they’ll continue with us for the following year, and so on.
“The offer does not meet our expectations, but I respect your decision based on the compliance issues.”
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