While Formula 1 and Formula E continue with their World Championships, MotoGP begins to enter the last phase for its return, scheduled for the first weekend of August at the mythical Silverstone circuit. And, contrary to what one might initially think, without great news regarding the market and how paddock in the next season. Or rather, there have already been some confirmations such as Álex Márquez at Gresini Racing or Álex Rins at LCR Honda, but now the piece that will unlock everything that remains to be known is missing: Miguel Oliveira. And so it goes, despite this one month break.
“I don’t make decisions based on the money I make. I see myself as a top-level driver”: Miguel Oliveira talks about the future again
Even so, the accounts are relatively easy to do: with the Gresini team closed, with the other LCR Honda seat always in the hands of a Japanese rider, with Joan Mir already committed to the factory Honda team, with the possibility that there will be some surprise in the other separate sets, there are only two scenarios left for the Portuguese pilot. One is continuity, returning to Tech3 on an improved salary but staying with KTM, which will have Jack Miller paired with Brad Binder on the factory team; another is change, emerging as the central figure of the new RNF Aprilia, Aprilia’s satellite line-up that will debut in 2023 following the announcement of the end of the agreement with Yamaha.
“Miguel Oliveira does not have to pay for his freedom”, guarantees KTM. But there are only three possibilities open for the Portuguese
Despite the many news that began in the Italian press and then passed to the Spanish press reporting an alleged agreement already underway between the Portuguese driver and the transalpine brand, Oliveira always refused any definitive scenario, neither closing nor opening no door. Even so, an interview with Hervé Poncharal, owner of the French team Tech3 and close to the Portuguese in the two years he was in the group where he won his first two MotoGP victories, ended up practically dictating what the stage in which he found himself should be . 2023 – and that does not happen for KTM.
The announced goodbye of Miguel Oliveira to KTM (still without an alternative): “My future is going to be bright. I deserve so much more.”
“I can’t speak for Miguel but he thinks he’s better than Jack [Miller]. And that’s normal. He has to think like ‘If KTM puts Jack above me, that means they have lost confidence in me’. That must be his line of thought and I understand his attitude. She thought about KTM’s offer for a couple of days. But when we were on the grill, his father informed Pit Beirer that he could no longer be counted on. I would love to have Miguel in the team but I have to accept his decision”, assumed the person in charge, weeks after Beirer, boss of KTM, kept all the scenarios open.
“The father reported that they could no longer count on him”: KTM “give up” with Miguel Oliveira and change to RNF Aprilia takes more strength
Officer, nothing. However, the Portuguese rider who spent the last eight years at KTM does not forget his beginnings in the world of motorcycling either and, in a video made and shared by the MotoGP organization, he made a surprising choice regarding the best bike he had piloted afterwards. they have aimed in the first instance at the KTM RC16 that he now has in his hands. “The two-stroke engine bikes were amazing. It was a great motorcycle. I would love to ride it again, after so many years”, he pointed out about the 125 RSA of… Aprilia, with which he did the Spanish Championship and the 125cc European Championship (third place).
A difficult decision between his first and his most recent! ????@_moliveira88 choose your favorite bike! ????️#MotoGP pic.twitter.com/Bj5DvJj2d1
— MotoGP™???? (@MotoGP) July 27, 2022
Coincidence or not, there is still doubt about a possible connection that already existed in the past, taking into account that the first team to compete in one of the three main world categories, Andalucía Banca Cívica, had an Aprilia engine. That would be the last season of the 125cc, moving in the following year of 2012 to Estrella Galicia 0.0 with a Honda engine already in Moto3 (where he already achieved two podiums) and to Mahindra. From 2015 until now, always at KTM, Miguel Oliveira was runner-up in Moto3, runner-up in Moto 2 and achieved four wins and six podiums since he arrived in MotoGP in 2019.
“Yes, I will be on the MotoGP grid”: Miguel Oliveira announces a new team in the coming days (and he did not only speak with Ducati)
Source: Observadora
