Official: Petronas SRT to end, reborn for MotoGP 2022

Following the withdraw of title sponsor Petronas, the Sepang Racing Team (SRT) has confirmed it will cease to exist after this season and be reborn as a new entity for the 2022 MotoGP world championship.

That means the end of the Moto2 and Moto3 projects as well as full separation from the Malaysian Circuit, which currently owns the team.

Details of the new-look satellite Yamaha squad are set to be announced at Misano in mid-September, but both team principal Razlan Razali and team director Johan Stigefelt are confirmed as being part of the future project.

Not named as staying is current team manager Wilco Zeelenberg, increasing the probability that the Dutchman will fill the vacany created by Davide Brivio's departure from Suzuki at the start of this year.

"We have experienced a remarkable voyage over the past years. From a small start in 2015 there was a great step for us in 2018 when we secured an entry to the premier class of MotoGP and built a MotoGP squad from scratch," Razali said.

"In 2019 we were on the grid and just four races into our rookie season we were on the front row. By the seventh race we were on the podium. In 2020 we secured the first race win for a satellite Yamaha MotoGP team in over 20 years and finished second in the overall team and rider championships. In 2021 we raced with the Greatest Of All Time rider, Valentino Rossi. This is an incredible story.

"The team will race its final race in Valencia and we thank all our crew, riders, fans and partners for their support. In particular, we thank Petronas, with whom none of this would have been possible…

"We also thank Sepang International Circuit for their vision and support of upcoming Malaysian talent over a long period.

"Our collective dream was to have a Malaysian rider competing for podiums in the MotoGP World Championship. Sadly, we were not able to achieve this in the short life of our squad, but we can reflect upon tremendous success by every other measure.

"Our final season has not reached its conclusion yet and we continue to strive for the very best results possible across all three classes. Thank you all."

The news was officially confirmed on Thursday at Silverstone, where just three years ago the team held a press conference to confirm that the Sepang-Petronas-Yamaha partnership would make its premier-class debut in 2019.

The team went on to enjoy stunning success with Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli, culminating in six MotoGP race wins last season and a world championship challenge.

But Quartararo swapped places with nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi at the factory Yamaha team for 2021, while Morbidelli remained on an aging 2019-based A-Spec bike.

The outcome has been just one podium for Morbidelli, currently sidelined by a knee injury, and a best of just eighth place for Rossi.

Rossi will retire at the end of this season, while there are rumours that Morbidelli – already pencilled in to re-join Quartararo in 2022, following the factory's mid-season split from Maverick Vinales - might be in Monster colours for the final rounds of this year.

Either way, the reborn SRT entry needs two new riders for 2022.

The good news is that a new deal with Yamaha is due to be confirmed and the Malaysian team also has a five-year deal in place with Dorna for MotoGP grid places.

SRT's Darryn Binder is tipped to mimic Jack Miller's jump directly from Moto3 to MotoGP on one of the M1 seats next season, with triple MotoGP title runner-up Andrea Dovizioso – spending a year out after leaving Ducati - moving into pole position for the other ride.

Dovi's cause has been helped by the news that Italian brand WithU is rumoured to be stepping into the Petronas void as title sponsor next season. The naming of Misano as the location for the 2022 team announcement adds further weight to the WithU (and therefore Dovizioso) rumours.

Meanwhile, with Yamaha test rider Cal Crutchlow - who replaced Morbidelli at the Austrian rounds - moving across to fill the Vinales seat for Silverstone, SRT is promoting Jake Dixon from Moto2 to ride alongside Rossi for a home MotoGP debut.

Xavi Vierge, Dixon's Moto2 team-mate, is expected to get his MotoGP chance next time at Aragon before Morbidelli returns at Misano.

But if Morbidelli instead takes over from Crutchlow at the Factory squad, there is speculation that Dovizioso, 35, could join Petronas for the closing rounds in preparation for a full 2022 campaign.