The MotoGP drama at Spielberg continued on Thursday night ahead of the AustrianGP, as rumours circulated regarding the futures of the Petronas SRT Moto2/Moto3 teams.

The Sepang Racing Team is calling time on its Moto2 and Moto3 teams to concentrate its efforts on the MotoGP project after Malaysian oil giant Petronas decided to pull sponsorship of the three-tiered programme. The decision leaves both British riders John McPhee and Jake Dixon in a precarious position.

McPhee is no stranger to disappointment at the hands of SRT after his expected Moto2 promotion within the team disappeared despite contractual stipulations, and his 2021 crew chief, Mark Woodage, was redeployed to Dixon’s garage eight-rounds into the season, at the start of the GermanGP.

Dixon himself was repeatedly tipped to either stay on with his current Moto2 team for next season or be in line for one of the two promotion spots available in the MotoGP team.

The condensed effort will focus solely on the premier class - with rider line-up still TBC on both sides of the garage after Franky Morbidelli’s promotion to the factory Monster Energy team in place of Maverick Viñales, and Valentino Rossi’s announcement last week that he will retire at the end of 2022. While the outfit will be on the hunt for a title-sponsor from the end of the current season.

Further reports also state Yamaha has renegotiated its partnership with the Sepang-based squad, effectively downgrading it’s support package and offering it two ‘B-spec’ YZR-M1s for 2022.

Petronas SRT have been approached for comment but are yet to reply with any official information. Sources inside the team, however, have confirmed to BikeSportNews that the lightweight and intermediate teams will definitely stop at the end of the year unless a major sponsor is found with the small hope of a few staff members moving to the GP team.

More to follow