Monster Energy will have ‘an impactful presence’ on the 2021 Suzuki GSX-RRs of new world champion Joan Mir and team-mate Alex Rins. A ‘multi-year agreement’ has been reached which will see the energy drink company, already title sponsor of the Factory Yamaha team, also become an ‘official sponsor’ of Team Suzuki Ecstar.
“We started negotiating before the beginning of the year and we are very proud to have Monster Energy branding on our bike for the years to come,” said team manager Davide Brivio.
“Monster was already a partner of our two riders so we look forward to working with them much more closely, and we’ll try to give our best contribution to their marketing activities. I believe both brands will benefit a lot from this partnership.”
Rodney Sacks, chairman and CEO of Monster Energy Company, said: “Having spent the last two years supporting both Alex and Joan as they raced for the team with great success, it is a very natural progression to come on board as an official partner.
“2020 has been an exceptional year for everyone connected with the team and we’re looking forward to continuing the astonishing journey that Suzuki and their riders have already taken fans on in MotoGP.
“The 2021 MotoGP season can’t come soon enough for any of us.”
Mir won this year’s world championship, the first for Suzuki since 2000, by 13 points over Franco Morbidelli (Petronas Yamaha) with Rins in third place.
Monster has backed two MotoGP teams before (albeit of the same brand), being title sponsor of Tech 3 Yamaha and also official sponsor of the factory Yamaha team.
When Tech3 then switched to KTM (and Red Bull) in 2019, Monster took over from Movistar as title sponsor of the official M1 team.
While the Monster-Yamaha deal is, like the new Suzuki agreement, of undisclosed length, the team is still titled as ‘Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP’ on the provisional 2021 entry list.
