Trackhouse confirms Miguel Oliveira's replacement for Japanese MotoGP

With Miguel Oliveira recovering from surgery to his right wrist, following last Friday’s Mandalika accident, Trackhouse has called up Aprilia test rider Lorenzo Savadori as a replacement for this weekend’s Japanese MotoGP.

Although Savadori made two appearances for the team under its previous RNF ownership, he will become the first rider other than Oliveira and Raul Fernandez to race in Trackhouse colours.

“In Japan we will replace Miguel with Lorenzo Savadori, so we will have two riders again,” said team manager Wilco Zeelenberg. “We decided to stick to our logistics plan and fly with the whole team to Motegi to finish off this series of three races in a row, all together.

“Saying that, it will not be immediately easy to perform and we hope that Aprilia will be able to use Lorenzo for the weekend to work through a development program and find performance conclusions for the new bike.

“Obviously, we keep Miguel in our thoughts and hope he will rejoin us very soon.”

Savadori has made four wild-card appearance for Aprilia this season with a best finish of 20th, while race-testing prototype parts for the RS-GP.

“First of all, I want to express my hopes that Miguel can return soon and have a speedy recovery,” Savadori said.

“Regarding the Japanese Grand Prix, I haven’t ridden at Motegi since 2010, so it’s already more than 14 years ago but, it’s a nice track and I can’t wait to start Free Practice 1.

“I am happy to make my debut for the Trackhouse Racing Team and we will obviously continue to work on the bike in order to improve it each time I jump on it.”

Savadori and Fernandez are the only current Aprilia MotoGP riders that will be remaining with the project in 2025, with Oliveira switching to Pramac Yamaha, Maverick Vinales to Tech3 KTM and Aleix Espargaro to HRC test riding duties.

After the lows of 16th and 18th at Aragon and San Marino, Fernandez took his best result on the RS-GP24 with tenth at Mandalika last weekend.

Last Sunday’s grand prix saw only twelve riders finish, but Fernandez’s +21s deficit to the winner would have been good enough for eighth place at the previous Misano 2 event.

“We ended Mandalika in a really good way,” Fernandez said. “We found something very positive and necessary for me at the end of a difficult run of races.

“After the summer [when Fernandez switched from the RS-GP23 to the ’24 bike] we have been struggling a bit, but now I have the feeling that we have found some solutions.

“Now, I’m very happy to go to Japan which, last year was really good for me. It’s a track where I can use my riding style and hopefully, even better this year. I can’t wait to get there and also get to eat some sushi!”

Free practice at Motegi starts on Friday morning.