The marriage between Aprilia and Maverick Vinales will end at the end of this MotoGP season. With the farewell to racing of Aleix Espargaro, who will take on the role of test driver with Honda, the Noale group sees its rider line-up revolutionized for 2025. At this point Massimo Rivola would prefer a certain continuity in the Trackhouse satellite team , but will Davide Brivio agree?
Oliveira-Fernandez ups and downs
Jorge Martin and Marco Bezzecchi, who currently race a Ducati, will be the next Aprilia riders with a two-year contract. Espargaro tearfully announced his retirement at the end of the championship during his home weekend at Montmelò, Vinales has just signed with KTM Tech-3 for two years. What has not yet been decided at Aprilia is the deployment of the second team, namely Trackhouse Racing. Miguel Oliveira and Raul Fernandez remain an unknown for now, with their mixed performances since the start of this MotoGP season. The Portuguese rides an official RS-GP24, while the Spaniard will receive this specification from the Silverstone GP (he currently uses a bike with 2023 aerodynamics and 2024 engine).
Trackhouse needs to decide on the line-up
It remains to be seen whether Oliveira and Fernandez, who both have a direct contract with Aprilia until the end of 2024, will race for the Trackhouse team in 2025. The CEO Massimo Rivola would like to reconfirm both, even if the final decision lies with Davide Brivio and owner Justin Marks. “I can’t say anything other than that the agreement with Trackhouse is such that they decide“, explained the manager from Faenza. “Personally, I would obviously like to continue with Oliveira and Raul Fernandez. After all, both were my first choice and I continue to believe in them. We will try to push the decision in that direction, also for this reason, because now that we are replacing both riders in the official team, continuity on the other side would be very important.“.
Massimo Rivola’s “veto”.
Between the two riders, Massimo Rivola does not hide a certain predilection for Raul, although his career in MotoGP has so far been uncertain, “especially the first year at KTM“. If they really had to sacrifice one of the two, Aprilia’s top brass would let Oliveira go. “From the data we can see that (Raul Fernandez) he has the potential to get on the podium soon. Of course, for this to happen, many factors must come together, such as a good starting position. In any case, his speed is there. I am really a big fan of Raul and I hope he continues to ride for us… Personally I would like to see Miguel on an Aprilia, because I still believe he can show a great performance… I am sure that Davide, with his immense experience, will find the best one possible solution for the team“.
Photo MotoGP.com
