KUALA LUMPUR: Recently, the local two-wheel racing arena has been rife with speculation surrounding Hafizh Syahrin Abdullah’s impending move to a new team which would mean he could end up leaving Petronas Raceline altogether, which was the foundation that helped launch him onto the international racing scene.
Ever since he started racing for a full season in the Moto2 class in 2014, Hafizh’s performance has improved over time, with his best achievement being his first podium finish during the San Marino Grand Prix last month where he took third place.
Despite his improving track record, Hafizh, popularly known as ‘Pescao’, has become a hot topic of conversation regarding his move to a new Moto2 team that is about to be set up under the Sepang International Circuit (SIC) stable.
Among the questions raised are on sponsorship and if Petronas will still follow Hafizh when he moves, or severe ties with the one senior rider who came up under the national oil and gas company’s talent development programme.
Petronas has another rider under the same programme in Kasma Daniel Kasmayudin, though his talent is still being developed.
If at all Petronas decide to let Hafizh go, it will be a huge loss — akin to discarding their most prized asset, and if so then they need to identify and mould other budding new talents to make up for it, and this of course would take time.
“Just try to picture this, Hafizh is a very good rider and should his sponsors leave him just like that?” said a source who declined to be named.
“They (Petronas) might still be with Hafizh in the future, but for now let him concentrate and focus on the next two races coming up (Japan and Australian Grand Prix).
“After these two races, the next one will be in Malaysia, and perhaps such a question will be answered by then.”
The Shell Malaysia Grand Prix is scheduled to take place on Oct 27 to 29 in Sepang, where Hafizh managed a fifth place finish during last year’s race.
Before this, Hafizh confirmed that he would be moving to a new team for next season, after taking into consideration a few main factors such as his current team’s internal issues, though he clarified that he does not have any problems with Petronas.
Translated from Berita Harian