Hafizh Syahrin

In this Malay name, there is no surname or family name. The name Abdullah is a patronymic, and the person should be referred to by their given name, Hafizh. The word "bin" or "binti"/"binte" means 'son of' or 'daughter of', respectively.

Hafizh Syahrin bin Abdullah (born 5 May 1994) is a Malaysian motorcycle racer, who most recently competed in WorldSBK in 2024 on a Ducati in JDT Racing Team colors. He raced full time in the series in 2022 and 2023 with MIE Honda. In 2018, he most notably became the first ever Southeast Asian to race in the MotoGP category.

Hafizh Syahrin
Hafizh in 2019
Nationality	Malaysian
Born	(1994-05-05) 5 May 1994 Ampang, Selangor, Malaysia
Current team	JDT Racing Team
Bike number	55
Motorcycle racing career statistics MotoGP World Championship Active years 2018–2019 Manufacturers Yamaha (2018) KTM (2019) Championships 0 2019 championship position 23rd (9 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 37 0 0 0 0 55 Moto2 World Championship Active years 2011–2017, 2020–2021 Manufacturers Moriwaki, FTR, Kalex, Speed Up, NTS Championships 0 2021 championship position 28th (9 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 109 0 3 0 1 377 Superbike World Championship Active years 2022–2024 Manufacturers Honda, Ducati Championships 0 2024 championship position 36th (0 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 63 0 0 0 0 21

Career

Early career

Hafizh was born on 5 May 1994 in Selangor, Malaysia, and grew up in Selangor. He began his career at the age of 9, in pocket bikes, where he eventually acquired the nickname "King of Pocket Bikes". It was not long before his talent began to show, after his racing debut on pocket bikes the following year. Dominating the pocket bike category soon after, he was discovered by Leong at one of the pocket bike tracks, purely by chance.

In 2007, at the age of 13, Hafizh made his debut in the Cub Prix championship in dominating style, finishing his first year on the Yamaha LC135 Cup class second overall.

His form continued the following year, as Petronas Sprinta Raceline team's youngest rider, taking 3rd overall in the Yamaha Givi Cup in 2008, and in the process also making waves through his entries in the Novice category, with similarly impressive results.

Hafizh started the 2009 season on a high, winning the opening race of the season at Alor Setar with a win in the Novice category. With 7 wins out of 8 rounds, and the other also being a podium finish, his dominance in the category was so unrivalled that he opted to forego the final two rounds. The youngster switched to race against his more illustrious and seasoned seniors in the Expert category, finishing with podium results. He also finished third in the Asia Road Racing Underbone 115cc Championship.

Graduating to take on the expert category in 2010, the switch was seamless as Hafizh literally broke down all the barriers, and tore the competition apart. Despite a massive revamp in the technical regulations that led to the renaming of the expert category to become the CP130 category, these changes did little to rattle Hafizh's cage.

By the time the season drew to a close in Penang's Padang Kota Lama, the 16-year-old had finished off the competition, to emerge as the championship's youngest ever CP130 champion, erasing the record set by Norizman Ismail who was the Expert champion in 2005 at the age of 20.

2010 was also significant as the 16-year-old made the step up to the bigger league, the Petronas Asia Road Racing Championship aboard a 600cc SuperSport bike. Against a much older and experienced field, the youngster held his own to finish his debut season in a respectable 12th from 39 riders. He finished fourth in the same series in 2011. He moved into the Spanish Moto2 series in 2012, finishing sixth there.

Moto2 World Championship

In 2012, wild-card Hafizh led during the middle stages of his home Malaysian Grand Prix, on his way to a fourth place. The result was later promoted to a third-place finish, after Anthony West's results were annulled in November 2013, due to doping.

In the 2013 Moto2 World Championship, Hafizh made four more wildcard appearances, scoring a point at his home race in Malaysia.

Petronas Raceline Malaysia (2014–2017)

Hafizh moved into Moto2 full-time in 2014, riding the lone Kalex for the Petronas Raceline Malaysia team. He finished the season in 19th position, with 42 points, and a season's best 7th place finish in the United States Grand Prix.

For the 2015 Moto2 World Championship, Hafizh made further improvements by collecting 64 points, with a season best finish of 5th at the Japanese Grand Prix, and ending the year 16th in the championship standings.

In 2016, Hafizh surprised many people by finishing 4th at three Grands Prixs (Qatar, Catalunya and Britain) and finishing ten Grands Prixs in the top 10. He collected 118 points total, and finished the championship in 9th position.

In 2017, he made a slow start to the year, but started making an impact in the second half of the season, when he scored his second podium in the category, with another 3rd place in the San Marino Grand Prix, which was later turned into a second place after Dominique Aegerter was disqualified. Later, he had another strong result by taking the 3rd podium of his Moto2 career, when he get 3rd position in a wet race at the Japanese Grand Prix, making it two podiums within 3 races. He ended that season 10th overall, with 106 points.

MotoGP World Championship

Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (2018)

Just a week before the 2018 MotoGP Sepang pre-season test, Jonas Folger made a surprise announcement that he would not compete in the 2018 season, in order to recover from his Gilbert's syndrome health problems. The head of the Monster Yamaha Tech3 team, Hervé Poncharal, had a discussion with SIC Petronas CEO Razlan Razali, and their main sponsor Yamaha Asia, about the possibility of replacing Folger with Hafizh. He was given the opportunity to take part in the early pre-season test at the Circuit of Buriram, a track Hafizh knew well. Hafizh, nicknamed "El Pescao", made an impressive performance on his 1st ever run on a MotoGP bike, by clocking a lap time as good as the other rookies, though this may have been boosted by the unavailability of other riders on the grid who had contracts with other teams, leading to test riders like Yonny Hernandez getting an opportunity. Nevertheless, Monster Yamaha Tech3 was delighted with his potential, and signed Hafizh to fill Jonas Folger's seat for the 2018 season.

Hafizh did well in his first MotoGP season, when he fought for Rookie of the Year before losing out to Franco Morbidelli by only 4 points. His best result of the season came in the second round at Argentina, when he finished 9th after starting from 23rd. Hafizh ended the year 16th in the standings, with 46 points. On 6 June 2018, Tech3 announced that they would retain Hafizh for 2019, in a new era for Hervé Poncharal's team, that would see him make the switch to a factory spec KTM machine.

Red Bull KTM Tech 3 (2019)

Hafizh would again ride for Tech3, this time riding a KTM alongside new rookie teammate Miguel Oliveira. He only finished six races in the points, scoring 9 points total. The team announced they would not renew his contract, and will replace him with Brad Binder for the 2020 season, but Binder later moved up to the Factory KTM Team for 2020, following Johann Zarco taking the decision to leave the team after only 1 year of his 2 year deal. This led to Hafizh being instead replaced by Iker Lecuona.

Return to Moto2

Aspar Team (2020)

After losing his spot in MotoGP, Hafizh returned to Moto2 with the Aspar Team for the 2020 Moto2 World Championship. He started the season well, scoring a sixth place in the second round at Jerez, but only finished in the point scoring places three times after that race, scoring a total of 21 points.

NTS RW Racing GP (2021)

Hafizh switched teams for the 2021 season, but struggled again, scoring points in only three races, 9 total points in the season. He switched to WorldSBK in 2022

Superbike World Championship

MIE Racing Honda Team (2022)

Hafizh struggling with the Honda machinery but made a decent start ahead of his Superbike World Championship debut.

Career statistics

FIM CEV Moto2 European Championship

Races by year

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Bike	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Pos	Pts
2017	Kalex	ALB 1	CAT1	CAT2	VAL1	VAL2	EST1	EST2	JER	ARA1	ARA2	VAL	15th	25

Grand Prix motorcycle racing

By season

Season	Class	Motorcycle	Team	Number	Race	Win	Podium	Pole	FLap	Pts	Plcd
2011	Moto2	Moriwaki	Petronas Malaysia	86	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC
2012	Moto2	FTR	Petronas Raceline Malaysia	86	1	0	1	0	1	16	23rd
2013	Moto2	Kalex	Petronas Raceline Malaysia	55	4	0	0	0	0	1	29th
2014	Moto2	Kalex	Petronas Raceline Malaysia	55	18	0	0	0	0	42	19th
2015	Moto2	Kalex	Petronas Raceline Malaysia	55	18	0	0	0	0	64	16th
2016	Moto2	Kalex	Petronas Raceline Malaysia	55	18	0	0	0	0	118	9th
2017	Moto2	Kalex	Petronas Raceline Malaysia	55	18	0	2	0	0	106	10th
2018	MotoGP	Yamaha	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	55	18	0	0	0	0	46	16th
2019	MotoGP	KTM	Red Bull KTM Tech 3	55	19	0	0	0	0	9	23rd
2020	Moto2	Speed Up	Aspar Team	55	14	0	0	0	0	21	21st
2021	Moto2	NTS	NTS RW Racing GP	55	17	0	0	0	0	9	28th
Total					146	0	3	0	1	432

By class

Class	Seasons	1st GP	1st Pod	1st Win	Race	Win	Podiums	Pole	FLap	Pts
Moto2	2011–2017, 2020–2021	2011 Malaysia	2012 Malaysia		109	0	3	0	1	377
MotoGP	2018–2019	2018 Qatar			37	0	0	0	0	55
Total	2011–2021				146	0	3	0	1	432

Races by year

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Class	Bike	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Pos	Pts
2011	Moto2	Moriwaki	QAT	SPA	POR	FRA	CAT	GBR	NED	ITA	GER	CZE	INP	RSM	ARA	JPN	AUS	MAL 20	VAL			NC	0
2012	Moto2	FTR	QAT	SPA	POR	FRA	CAT	GBR	NED	GER	ITA	INP	CZE	RSM	ARA	JPN	MAL 3	AUS	VAL			23rd	16
2013	Moto2	Kalex	QAT	AME	SPA	FRA 21	ITA	CAT 18	NED	GER	INP	CZE	GBR	RSM	ARA	MAL 15	AUS	JPN	VAL Ret			29th	1
2014	Moto2	Kalex	QAT 15	AME 15	ARG 20	SPA 21	FRA 15	ITA 25	CAT Ret	NED 10	GER 18	INP 7	CZE 13	GBR 8	RSM 20	ARA 11	JPN 8	AUS Ret	MAL Ret	VAL 16		19th	42
2015	Moto2	Kalex	QAT 12	AME 6	ARG 10	SPA 12	FRA 9	ITA Ret	CAT 14	NED 15	GER 16	INP Ret	CZE 14	GBR 16	RSM 18	ARA 7	JPN 5	AUS 16	MAL 8	VAL Ret		16th	64
2016	Moto2	Kalex	QAT 4	ARG 6	AME 16	SPA 11	FRA 8	ITA 5	CAT 4	NED Ret	GER 7	AUT 21	CZE 6	GBR 4	RSM 7	ARA 14	JPN 13	AUS Ret	MAL 5	VAL 15		9th	118
2017	Moto2	Kalex	QAT Ret	ARG 10	AME 11	SPA 13	FRA 11	ITA 12	CAT 9	NED 8	GER 11	CZE 15	AUT 10	GBR 17	RSM 2	ARA 16	JPN 3	AUS 16	MAL 6	VAL 6		10th	106
2018	MotoGP	Yamaha	QAT 14	ARG 9	AME Ret	SPA 16	FRA 12	ITA 12	CAT Ret	NED 18	GER 11	CZE 14	AUT 16	GBR C	RSM 19	ARA 18	THA 12	JPN 10	AUS Ret	MAL 10	VAL 10	16th	46
2019	MotoGP	KTM	QAT 20	ARG 16	AME 18	SPA 19	FRA 14	ITA Ret	CAT Ret	NED 15	GER 16	CZE Ret	AUT Ret	GBR 13	RSM 15	ARA 21	THA 20	JPN 19	AUS 15	MAL 16	VAL 15	23rd	9
2020	Moto2	Speed Up	QAT 19	SPA 6	ANC Ret	CZE 9	AUT Ret	STY	RSM Ret	EMI 19	CAT 18	FRA 15	ARA 19	TER 13	EUR Ret	VAL 19	POR 21					21st	21
2021	Moto2	NTS	QAT Ret	DOH 21	POR 18	SPA 17	FRA 15	ITA 9	CAT 20	GER 17	NED 23	STY Ret	AUT 18	GBR 21	ARA 19	RSM 18	AME 20	EMI	ALR 18	VAL 15		28th	9

Superbike World Championship

By season

Season	Class	Motorcycle	Team	Number	Race	Win	Podium	Pole	FLap	Pts	Plcd
2022	SBK	Honda	MIE Racing Honda Team	35	30	0	0	0	0	10	23rd
2023	SBK	Honda	Petronas MIE Racing Honda Team	35	30	0	0	0	0	11	21st
2024	SBK	Ducati	JDT Racing Team	10	3	0	0	0	0	0	36th
Total					63	0	0	0	0	21

Races by year

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Bike	1			2			3			4			5			6			7			8			9			10			11			12			Pos	Pts
		R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2
2022	Honda	SPA 21	SPA 22	SPA 20	NED 20	NED 22	NED 17	POR 19	POR 16	POR 19	ITA 17	ITA 13	ITA Ret	GBR 17	GBR 19	GBR 20	CZE Ret	CZE 15	CZE 12	FRA 20	FRA 17	FRA 19	SPA WD	SPA WD	SPA WD	POR Ret	POR 23	POR 19	ARG	ARG	ARG	INA 13	INA 15	INA 14	AUS 15	AUS 12	AUS 17	23rd	10
2023	Honda	AUS 15	AUS 19	AUS 17	INA 16	INA 17	INA 15	NED 19	NED 18	NED 14	SPA 14	SPA 16	SPA Ret	EMI Ret	EMI 15	EMI 15	GBR 17	GBR 19	GBR 15	ITA	ITA	ITA	CZE	CZE	CZE	FRA 18	FRA 18	FRA 14	SPA 19	SPA 19	SPA Ret	POR 20	POR 19	POR Ret	SPA 15	SPA 16	SPA 19	21st	11
2024	Ducati	AUS	AUS	AUS	SPA	SPA	SPA	NED	NED	NED	ITA	ITA	ITA	GBR	GBR	GBR	CZE	CZE	CZE	POR 18	POR 20	POR 22	FRA	FRA	FRA	ITA	ITA	ITA	SPA	SPA	SPA	POR	POR	POR	SPA	SPA	SPA	36th	0

External links

• Hafizh Syahrin at DriverDB.com
• Hafizh Syahrin at MotoGP.com
• Hafizh Syahrin at WorldSBK.com
• Hafizh Syahrin at AS.com (in Spanish)