Petronas to withdraw SRT MotoGP title sponsorship

That's the curse from when they & rossi did their little back door dealing against HRC in 03 to defect in 04. Simply amazing that HRC even when they make a major blunder in the bike can keep Repsol. While yamaha has gone thru at least 6 sponsors since the 4 stroke era.

That was a quick blow. That sponsorship was worth a lot of money.

MdubSTYLIE said:

Seems pretty obvious they were only in it for the yellow custard crew. They didn't even make it a week past his announcement. Saudi money> Malaysian money I guess.

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Yes, sounds like that team was going to be the VR46 Petronas team headed by a retired Rossi, but he has now pivoted to running Ducatis with sponsorship from a different oil company.

Yamaha would appear to have made a fearful hash of things since 2015, saved only by chancing upon FQ who was a Petronas SRT rider in the first place anyway.

michaelm said:

Yes, sounds like that team was going to be the VR46 Petronas team headed by a retired Rossi, but he has now pivoted to running Ducatis with sponsorship from a different oil company.

Yamaha would appear to have made a fearful hash of things since 2015, saved only by chancing upon FQ who was a Petronas SRT rider in the first place anyway.

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Yamaha really lucked into Fabio, I don't think anyone expected the kind of form he has been able to be in from him when it was announced he would be signed and if anything Morbidelli was considered the air apparent to Rossi's seat.

IIRC SRT's team manager didn't want Rossi on the team for this year, obviously we aren't privy to the ins and outs but could the fact that Rossi seems to have been 'forced' on them by Yamaha and/or Dorna be a factor as well?

As I said in another thread from the outside looking in and without being able to see or know everything that has happened it does look like Yamaha threw all their eggs in the Rossi basket at the expense of some world championship winning talent (Lorenzo, Marquez, Stoner etc. through the years) with the future plan being that Rossi would one day retire and bring his considerable fan base and marketing power with him as either a satellite team or factory team manager. They seem to have gambled on it all working out with Rossi and it doesn't look like at this stage it has. Not all is lost for Yamaha, they have the best bike on the grid and have for at least 2 seasons, though they threw themselves and were thrown by Rossi and Vinales under the bus for their results. It's just a strange turn of events, up until this year you would have almost guaranteed Rossi would stay with Yamaha as team principle unless the Petronas money offered was an option they preferred. Now they look to have lost both of those things and I'm not sure where that leaves them.

Interesting days ahead IMO.

MdubSTYLIE said:

Seems pretty obvious they were only in it for the yellow custard crew. They didn't even make it a week past his announcement. Saudi money> Malaysian money I guess.

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Perhaps ..... has made them re-evaluate their global sponsorships to markets and venues that give them greater exposure like F1 with Mercedes...

Is this however an indication of a larger problem MotoGP?

MigsAngel said:

Perhaps ..... has made them re-evaluate their global sponsorships to markets and venues that give them greater exposure like F1 with Mercedes...

Is this however an indication of a larger problem MotoGP?

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Good point. ..... is hurting a lot of business’ and would be the most obvious reason. While we all love to look around for some deeper meaning often the simplest reason is the right one.

MigsAngel said:

Perhaps ..... has made them re-evaluate their global sponsorships to markets and venues that give them greater exposure like F1 with Mercedes...

Is this however an indication of a larger problem MotoGP?

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Sure, a very reasonable point. And motogp has struggled for sponsorship in general since tobacco advertising was banned.

SRT should make a bid to get young Pedro Acosta. A chance to get straight to MotoGP on a Yamaha might just do it. He seems like he’s set to be a future star in the sport with his appearances so far this season.