John McPhee’s German weekend began in frustrating style even before a wheel was turned at the Sachsenring, after Petronas removed veteran crew chief Mark Woodage from the Scot’s Moto3 arsenal.

Reallocating the services of long-standing paddock stalwart ‘Brains’ to its Moto2 rider Jake Dixon - in a bid to turn the fortunes of the struggling 25-year-old - the SRT outfit has seemingly left McPhee without a replacement and the Andorran resident is far from pleased.

“Really disappointed” the Scotsman admitted before the action began.

“It’s disappointing and I’m disappointed in the management and the team for what they’ve done. I feel like it’s the second time in 10 months I’ve been let down - obviously the first one being that they didn’t honour my Moto2 contract last year.

“This time, being let down in the fact that, seven rounds into a 19 round championship, they’ve taken my Crew Chief off of me to put them into Moto2 and I’ve been left with the short end of the stick once again, so it’s really, really disappointing.”

With the short notice, no replacement appears to have been allocated, with McPhee’s data technician, Daniel Bonmati, instead stepping up to cover both roles.

“Basically they’ve taken Danny, my data guy - who’s a fantastic guy, really good, really knowledgeable in the data side of things,” the number 17 explained.

“Unfortunately he doesn’t have crew chief experience in the world championship, but he’s a very clever guy so he’ll be stepping up. He’ll be trying to fill that role, and between the two of us we’ll work the best that we can to try and make it work but a very, very difficult position to be in.”

Regarding the remainder of the season, McPhee was frustrated and unsure when asked if there was a more permanent solution in place. “That’s the question I would like to know as well and the question that I’ve asked but it looks like they’re just taking it day by day,” the Scot continued frankly.

“Like I say, unfortunately I’m the one that’s getting the short end of the stick and they don’t really have a plan in place. I think as of now, the plan is for me and Danny to work together, obviously we’re a man down now, and seven runs into a 19 round championship, it will be difficult moving forward but we will try our best. Obviously having Petronas behind us, it’s a fantastic team and a fantastic opportunity being in the team but I just feel like, where there’s been so many riders and so many people to please, unfortunately I seem to be the one that’s got the short straw on a couple of occasions now so it’s hard to take, but I’ll focus on my riding and look forward to the race on Sunday.”