A final clue about a forgotten MotoGP rider switch for 2025?

Augusto Fernandez will not ride at next week’s Barcelona MotoGP test, with his widely anticipated move into a testing role yet to be officially confirmed.

It’s expected that Fernandez will join Yamaha for 2025 as the Japanese brand’s official MotoGP test rider, but the Spanish rider will not be participating in Tuesday’s post-race test at Barcelona.

“It’s not going to be Tuesday,” Fernandez said. “I’ll be here, around, but not riding.”

Before the first test of the 2025 season comes the final race of the 2024 season, with Fernandez coming to Barcelona off the back of one of his best weekends of the year, finishing 10th in Sepang two weeks ago.

“Honestly, coming from Sepang, I was happy with the race, we did a very good step and I was feeling good, so looking forward to this race,” Fernandez said.

“This is a track that I like, even this year [at the Catalan Grand Prix] it was not the worst weekend.

“So looking forward to start here, different conditions to when we were here [for the Catalan Grand Prix]. So, for sure will change: tyres different, everything different, so everything new to manage.”

Although the conditions will be different for this weekend’s Solidarity Grand Prix will be different to those which were present at May’s Catalan Grand Prix, Fernandez expects the results to be mostly the same.

“It will be different the way we have to manage the weekend and everything, about the tyres because we have a lot to try and test,” Fernandez said.

“But in the end, this track at race time — we know in Spain it will be hot, maybe not as hot as May, but good conditions; the tyre drops because of the layout of Barcelona is what it is.

“So, same bikes, same riders will be as competitive [this weekend as in May].

“Me, hopefully a little bit more! But it will be more or less the same.”