The Malaysian oil company Petronas is currently decorating Hafizh Syahrin's Kalex with its sea green color.
The Malaysian driver made his first wild card in 2011 at home, but really revealed himself to the general public during his second Grand Prix appearance, exactly one year later, by seizing the lead of the race before finish 3rd on a wet track.
Since then, three full-time seasons have allowed him to rise to 9th in the championship, having scored 118 points for the Petronas Raceline Malaysia team, after finishing 4th three times (Qatar, Catalunya and Silverstone), and twice 5th (Mugello and Sepang).
With the departures of Johann Zarco, Alex Rins, Jonas Folger and Sam Lowes in MotoGP, the Malaysian rider therefore seems on paper able to seek a place on the final podium or in the Top 5 during this 2017 season.
And according to the journalist Scherazade Mulia Saraswati, it would not take more for this to open the doors of MotoGP, with the support of its powerful oil partner.
Barry Leong, Team Principal: “C’est une année importante pour Hafiz car notre sponsor Petronas a déclaré que ce dont nous avons besoin, c’est de courir en MotoGP.”
Racing in MotoGP is a dream that Petronas has been pursuing for a long time. The Malaysian company even had its own motorcycle built by Sauber, the FP1 (900cc, 3 cylinders, 4 stroke) before having a series of 150 derivatives manufactured to enter it in Superbike in the 2000s. The machine never really shone, obtaining only two podiums in four years, and the adventure provisionally stopped there, although it had been initiated by some hopeful results in 250cc with Yamahas driven by the Argentinian Sebastian Porto and Malaysian Shahrol Yuzy.
Beyond this announcement effect, what are the chances of moving into MotoGP next year for the Hafizh Syahrin/Petronas duo, it being understood that the latter could only be sponsor of an already existing team.
Weak, even very weak.
The first reason is provided by the vast majority of current riders' contracts extending until the end of 2018. As a result, appearances in MotoGP next year will be very rare.
But very weak doesn't mean zero, especially with an oil tanker behind you...
Nous ne nous aventurerons cependant pas à citer ici des noms
d’éventuels “sièges éjectables” avant même le début de cette saison
MotoGP.
Another difficulty, Hafiz Syahrin will certainly not be the only one to want to take the plunge, starting with another Asian pilot supported by an oil tanker, namely the Japanese Takaaki Nakagami with Idemitsu, much closer to Honda, without even mentioning the young shoots that are Franco Morbidelli et Lorenzo Baldassarri, nor even the experienced Tom Luthi...
