Malaysian MotoGP Team Accommodate Sponsorship Struggles For Now

Malaysia’s MotoGP team – the Petronas Yamaha Sepang Racing Team (SRT) – seens to be weathering the COVID-19 sponsorship storm, with no withdrawals. However, SRT’s principal – Datuk Razlan Razali – has had to extend special payment terms to a few of its smaller technical sponsors who have been forced to shutter their businesses for a month.

Razali has said that his team are giving these sponsors flexible payment terms this time round, but that terms may be stricter in future contracts. The new terms are for those sponsors that have mostly come from the retail sector, in Europe, who have been hardest hit by the COVID-19.

“Some of them have asked for flexibility to delay their progress payments, which is fine by us,” Razlan tells the New Straits Times.  “At the moment, none of our sponsors have pulled out and we are grateful that they are still with us,” he added.

Just last month, MotoGP promoter Dorna Sports, had offered financial advances to all satellite MotoGP teams as well as Moto2 and Moto3 squads to help pay staff wages during this global crisis.  

Razlan praised the Dorna move saying, “It is good that Dorna have given this to teams in advance even when there are no races. It shows that they understand and are reactive to the situation.”

Reflecting on his own team’s sponsorship deals, he believes there are lessons to be learned from the situation and that in future contracts may need to specify what is the definition of force majeure.