McPhee: I couldn’t turn it down
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John McPhee had made no secret of his desire to move to Moto2 in 2020, but ultimately ‘couldn’t turn down’ a concrete offer to stay with Petronas for one more season of Moto3.The Scotsman, who took the Sepang team’s first grand prix victory at Le Mans this season, is currently a career-best sixth overall in the Moto3 standings following his home round at Silverstone.”Today I finished one-second off the win and in twelve months’ time we’ll come back here knowing what to improve with my riding and the bike,” McPhee told at the British Grand Prix.”We’ve got a lot of good data now and I think next year we’ll be even stronger.”To be completely honest, I 100% wanted to go to Moto2,” he added. “But that doesn’t mean I’m not delighted to continue with this great opportunity in Moto3.”There will only be 28 bikes in Moto2 next year, maybe only five of those bikes are available because most riders are on two-year contracts and others have already signed.”Obviously my main focus was always to stay with Petronas and they are still not 100% on if they have got a second Moto2 bike for next year yet.”They said ‘we need a Moto3 rider and want to sign you. If we can get the second Moto2 bike, you could be on it. But if we don’t, we don’t want you to be left out’.”So to be given the opportunity to stay in Petronas in Moto3, a great team and great bunch of people around me, I couldn’t turn it down. So I’m staying here and the long term plan is to try and move up to Moto2 the year after with this team.”Is it definite that you will move up to Moto2 in 2021?”There are a couple of different clauses. It doesn’t say if you are ‘whatever’ by ‘whatever’ race, but the way it’s worded is that the intention is to go to Moto2,” McPhee replied.”Johan Stigefelt is a fantastic guy and very fair so the long and short of it is, if I perform, I’ll go. lf I’m not performing, I won’t be there. That’s how it works. It’s fair and the way it should be.”4″If you’re always in the fight and getting on the podium frequently, then hopefully I’ll have that [Moto2] opportunity.”McPhee’s Moto3 team-mate is still to be confirmed, with speculation that Sepang’s current Moto2 rider Khairul Idham Pawi may return to the junior class.
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