Petronas SRT boss Razali: "It's important to retain Franco"

Petronas Yamaha SRT boss Razlan Razali has signalled his intentions to retain Franco Morbidelli for next season and beyond, quashing rumours of Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo teaming up once again. Razali will lose Fabio Quartararo from his team in 2021 when the Frenchman moves up to the factory Yamaha squad alongside Maverick Viñales and he is keen on keeping at least one his current riders as he believes two new men in the box for 2021 would be "very risky".

With Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP's Rossi hinting at continuing his MotoGP™ career into 2021 in an interview last week, and with Yamaha Motor Racing's Managing Director Lin Jarvis confirming that The Doctor will have a full-factory spec Yamaha M1 for as long as he wants to continue, that would almost guarantee that we'll see the Italian in Petronas colours from next season.

Plus, with rumours circulating that five-time World Champion Jorge Lorenzo is considering coming out of retirement after rekindling his love for MotoGP™ having jumped back onboard a Yamaha at the Sepang Test earlier in the year, it looked like Morbidelli might be forced to look elsewhere for a ride in 2021. However, Razali has put those rumours to bed once and for all by stating his desire to keep the former Moto2™ World Champion, during an interview with motorsport.com.

"To reinforce the stability that exists in the team, I think it’s important to retain Franco," said Razlan Razali. "It is possible that we will close the renewal even before the first race. This season is very atypical and also in relation to the choice of riders for next year because surely decisions will have to be made before they can be evaluated [on track]."

"Having two new riders next year, we consider it to be very risky. So we prefer to stay with one of those we already know. Hence the idea of keeping Franky. He is a rider who gives very good information about the behaviour of the bike, both to us and Yamaha. He already did it in 2019 and also during the tests this winter."