People MotoGP: Johan Stigefelt returns to the dance

Since the Petronas Yamaha SRT team transformed into WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP™ Team this winter, one of the two heads of the old structure had disappeared from the paddock, Johan Stigefelt. But the Swede has just reappeared in Texas, in new colors...

“Les histoires d’amour finissent mal…, en général !”
After 7 years of living together, that of the relationships between Razlan Razali et Johan Stigefelt will not contradict the Rita Mitsouko song.

The story is complex, mixing networks, financial interests and egos…

On the one hand Razlan Razali, aka Datuk Ahmad Razlan bin Tan Sri Ahmad Razali, born 46 years ago in Malaysia into a family widely involved in politics and business. After studying in Australia and working as a concert organizer, he found himself promoted to director of the Sepang circuit before taking charge of the destiny of the team which would become Petronas Yamaha SRT in MotoGP after taking over the positions of the Ángel Nieto team held by Aspar as well as the Yamahas abandoned by Tech3…

The other, Johan Stigefelt, a former Swedish driver who started in Grands Prix in 1997, racing in the 250cc category until 2000. In 2001, he spent his only season in the premier category on the Saber 500cc, then disappeared from the circuits before returning in at the end of 2011, with the role of director of the Moto3 RW Racing GP team. He then took the reins of the Caterham Racing Moto2 team for the 2014 season and concluded the championship in sixth position with John Zarco. After the disappearance of Air Asia from the circuits, he was chosen by Razlan Razali to manage the new Moto3 team at the Sepang International Circuit known as SIC Racing Team…

After 7 years of collaboration, Razlan Razali et Johan Stigefelt officially separated on the evening of the 2021 Valencia Grand Prix, the first diplomatically explaining: “ Johan's main role was to oversee Moto2 and Moto3, so as we will only be in MotoGP next year, we made the decision, or I made the decision, that we will be able to manage that with Wilco and myself, and we made a mutual agreement with Johan to go in different directions. »

In fact, after tensions that arose in Aragón and quickly turned into a rupture at Misano-1, the two men never managed to agree on the 2022 structure, while the first has the two places in MotoGP and that the other had until then signed a certain number of contracts through his company “One Performance” based in his hometown.

Johan Stigefelt never responded to the statements of Razlan Razali reducing the role of the discreet Swede to that of an intermediary company facilitating various financial transactions. As soon as he was ousted from the new British team RNF, the latter turned to another team new to MotoGP, the VR46…

Today, an agreement has been formalized with the latter, both the racing team and the company managing the merchandising.

« Johan Stigefelt joins the Mooney VR46 Racing Team and VR46 as Business Development Manager. The Swede will be in charge of new partnerships and businesses for both entities. »