Miguel Oliveira returns for Trackhouse farewell at Barcelona MotoGP

Miguel Oliveira will return to MotoGP action for his Trackhouse Aprilia farewell at this weekend’s Solidarity Barcelona season finale.

The Portimao has missed the last five rounds due to wrist fractures caused by a traction control glitch during practice in Mandalika.

Oliveira, who made history for Trackhouse with its first top-three finish in the Sachsenring Sprint, will complete his final laps on an RS-GP before a debut with Pramac Yamaha in the Tuesday test.

“I’m really excited to come back to racing MotoGP,” Oliveira said.

“My expectations are not very high because I don’t know how limited my wrist is until I get back on the bike and it’s a Grand Prix with mixed feelings for sure, but my aim is to leave the Trackhouse team on a high.

“We, obviously, will be racing to gather some hope and also funds for those affected by the catastrophic events in Valencia so overall - I’m looking forward to it!”

Oliveira’s departure, plus an all-new factory line-up of Jorge Martin and Marco Bezzecchi, means Raul Fernandez is the only rider remaining with Aprilia in 2025.

Fernandez turned heads in on May’s Barcelona round by qualifying his then 2023-spec bike on the front row and sensationally leading the Sprint, before falling.

The Spaniard, since promoted to the RS-GP24, then claimed sixth place in the grand prix.

“First of all, we will race for all the people affected in Valencia,” said Fernandez. “What happened there is still a shock, so we will compete for them.

“Barcelona is a good track for us and although we will keep working for next year mainly, I would like to finish the last round of the season well.

“The result we had here, in Barcelona, last time makes me really optimistic. I would still like to stay calm, take it session by session and try to do my best.”

Oliveira’s replacement, reigning Moto2 champion Ai Ogura, will make his Trackhouse debut on Tuesday.

The Portuguese isn’t the only key Trackhouse figure departing this weekend, with team manager Wilco Zeelenberg also bidding farewell.

“Of course, let’s hope Barcelona is going to be a very special event, first of all, for the reason we go there, which is not the best. Let’s try to do everything for the people in Valencia to help them in whatever way we can,” Zeelenberg said.

“As the MotoGP organisation says, we don’t race in Valencia, but we race for Valencia - I think this is very nicely said and makes this second round in Barcelona very special.

“For our team, it will also be a special one because Miguel is coming back from injury and Raul led the Sprint race, at this home event here, early in summer.

“Our bike worked quite well there before so we will see if we can achieve the race results of the past.

“I’m looking forward to going there, the last MotoGP race of this season and maybe also, the final one of my career.”

A former grand prix rider - and winner of the 1990 West German 250GP - Zeelenberg first major success as a team manager came when Cal Crutchlow won the 2009 World Supersport title for Yamaha.

Zeelenberg then moved to MotoGP the following season, as team manager to new signing Jorge Lorenzo in a (literally) divided garage alongside Valentino Rossi.

The factory Yamaha team continued to employ a team manager for each rider until 2015, when Zeelenberg's official role became 'Rider Performance Analyst', to reflect his increasing focus on rider coaching.

Lorenzo and Zeelenberg won three world titles and 43 races by the time the Spaniard left for Ducati in 2017.

The Dutchman chose to remain at Yamaha and work with new signing Maverick Vinales, who won three of his opening five races on the M1. But over a year later and Vinales was yet to win again, causing obvious tension.

Zeelenberg and crew chief Ramon Forcada - another key member of Lorenzo's success - switched to the new Petronas Yamaha project for 2019, with the Dutchman returning to a team manager role.

The Sepang project discovered future champion Fabio Quartararo, celebrated six wins, the first victories for a satellite Yamaha team in MotoGP, and was 2020 title runner-up with Franco Morbidelli.

After running Valentino Rossi in his final MotoGP season, the exit of Petronas saw a slimmed-down version of the team reborn under Razlan Razali as RNF, with Yamaha and then Aprilia machinery.

Zeelenberg helped steer the team through those choppy waters, including a doomed CryptoDATA partnership and he remained as team manager for the start of this year’s new Trackhouse era.

It is not thought that Zeelenberg will be replaced, suggesting team director Davide Brivio will take on more of the team manager role.