KUALA LUMPUR, March 20 — Petronas Yamaha SRT stressed that there would be no place for Hafizh Syahrin Abdullah in the team next season if he did not exhibit an excellent result this season.
Its team principal, Datuk Razlan Razali said this following the lackadaisical performance of the Red Bull KTM Tech 3 racer at the World Motorcycle Championship (MotoGP) in Qatar, two weeks ago.
He said the first Malaysian MotoGP team had sealed contracts with two racers Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Quartararo two seasons until 2020.
‘’I don’t want to be pressured at the end of the year when people ask ‘where is Hafizh going?’’. I don’t want pressures later (next season) at being asked to take him in if he has problems. The contracts with the other racers are for two years, so there is no place for Hafizh next year.
‘’I don’t want him to think that the safe way is to be with Petronas. Hafizh has to work harder this season and be more diligent in training so that the same mistakes are not repeated,’’ he told the media today.
Razlan, who is also the Sepang International Circuit (SIC) chief executive officer (CEO) also advised Hafizh not to compare his new machine, namely, KTM with the previous one, Yahama and used it as an excuse for his discouraging performance.
He said Hafizh must find a way to ensure he was more comfortable with his new machine at the subsequent races in MotoGP Argentina on March 29 to 31.
‘’If he is not aware of what is happening to him after the first round, then he’s in trouble. I don’t want him to think only for this year, he must think how long he can be in MotoGP.
“Like I said before, being able to get in the first year is luck, it maybe not that difficult, what’s difficult is how long one can last in MotoGP,’’ he said.
Razlan stressed SIC would continue to support Hafizh in terms of physical and psychological fitness at the National Sports Institute.
For the record, Hafizh ended the race at the bottom in 43 minutes 20.144 seconds while his team mate Miguel Oliveira of Portugal was in 17th place in 42:53.279s at the first race at the Losail International Circuit, Qatar. — Bernama
