Thursday, January 5 2012
The sponsorship deal between Yamaha Racing and Petronas, the Malaysian oil company, has ended and is not being renewed. However, all is not lost, as MotoMatters have confirmed that Yamaha will be replacing Petronas with Nippon Oil subsidiary brand ENEOS as their sponsor on the MotoGP grid.
Yamaha Racing has been unable to officially announce the signing of ENEOS as the team’s sponsor because of business etiquette regarding the direct competition between the two oil firms. It’s likely that Yamaha will make a formal announcement at some point during the 2012 season build-up. It is not yet clear how large the ENEOS sponsorship deal will be in terms of money, but to give it some context, the Petronas deal was reportedly worth $8 million per year.
