Miguel Oliveira: “I know exactly what I will encounter” at Pramac Yamaha
Tech3 KTM and RNF/Trackhouse Aprilia experience means Miguel Oliveira goes into the new Pramac Yamaha project with eyes open.
Miguel Oliveira’s experience of new factory-satellite MotoGP partnerships at Tech3 KTM and then RNF/Trackhouse Aprilia means “I know exactly what I will encounter” at Pramac Yamaha next season.
Oliveira joined MotoGP with Tech3 in 2019, the debut year for a KTM satellite team.
After winning races for Tech3 in 2020 and later the factory Red Bull squad, history repeated itself for Oliveira as he signed up for Aprilia’s new satellite project, with RNF in 2023. RNF turned into Trackhouse this season.
Meanwhile, Yamaha is enduring one of its toughest years in the MotoGP era, with no podiums and former world champion Fabio Quartararo just 15th in the standings.
Oliveira confirmed he had spoken to Quartararo, his ‘motorhome neighbour’, about the M1’s current difficulties before signing.
“I speak more with Fabio [than Alex Rins] because he's my motorhome neighbour, so I get to see him more times!” Oliveira said. “He shares with me his frustrations. I understand them at the moment.
“But I also think I entered two teams exactly in the way we are entering now with Yamaha. First, when KTM supplied for the first time Tech3. And also the first time Aprilia went to Trackhouse [RNF].
“So I know exactly what I will encounter as difficulties.”
Oliveira also knows there are unlikely to be any overnight solutions.
“It will depend on Yamaha’s reaction time, how [long] it will take to get things up to the track.
“I believe the technical difficulties now, will still be there [next year], but with two [satellite] riders again giving feedback we will find a way around them for sure.”
“After being involved with two different manufacturers, I feel my adaptation capability is quite high,” he added.
“I'm riding in a totally different way than I rode two years ago and I think this can help for sure give feedback and get things going quicker.
“Having a second factory team and being involved in such a team as Pramac is a huge motivation for me, as you can imagine, and I can't wait to get started. “
Currently in the bottom concessions band means Yamaha, like Honda, can conduct private testing with race riders.
The Portuguese is happy to take part in such outings between races next year, since “the more time you spend on the bike is always nice.”
“Also it depends on the phase that we are in the project. For sure now we need to invest a lot of time testing and probably the approach to the race weekends will be quite ‘flat’ in terms of expectations.
“But I hope we start losing concessions and hopefully we stop the testing sooner than we think.”
Pledging “I'm ready to work” and acknowledging “it's going to be tough for sure”, Oliveira maintained: “Sooner or later we will be there. We are talking about one of the strongest manufacturers in the whole paddock.
“Once they decide and commit to do something, it's a matter of time that they do it.
“Yamaha does not want to wait much longer to come back to the top.”
Oliveira starts this weekend’s Misano MotoGP round 13th in the world championship, with his best results so far this season second (Sprint) and sixth places (GP) at the Sachsenring.
