Portugal’s Miguel Oliveira said on Tuesday he hopes to increase his record of wins in the MotoGP World Championship for KTM despite announcing that he will ride for Aprilia’s satellite RNF from 2023.
At Almada, the Austrian factory team rider recalled his winning KTM past, with which he took the “biggest step” of his career, “moving into the top MotoGP class”, and reaffirmed his full commitment until the last race of the season.
“Together we have achieved 37 podiums, 14 of which are victories, so I am very proud of this track. Races this season have not yet been completed, and I believe that this number can still be increased. This is our hope until the last lap. Grand Prix of Valencia,” the pilot emphasized.
In that sense, he suggested that the “commitment” to his current team until the end of the season was “100% guaranteed”, despite the fact that he no longer intends to check the situation with an eye on the future next weekend in Misano, since the “technical cooperation cease” between the parties.
“Whatever I can use this year, I will use it. And this is in terms of learning my potential and the potential of my team until the end of the last lap in Valencia. The future obviously not compromised will go their separate ways at the end of this season,” the future RNF driver assured.
So despite acknowledging “hope” for a future in the service of the RNF, he said he was “looking forward to going to Italy” on Wednesday for the San Marino Grand Prix this weekend.
“There are still many steps to be taken before we get there. Obviously, when thinking about the future, we always think positively, with great hope and desire for it to come, but at the same time realizing that the present is the most important thing in life. this moment,” he grimaced.
However, Oliveira suggested that KTM offered him a Tech3 seat “which at the time was not named as a place for the GasGas Factory race team” and that it was “at that time” that he realized he “may reconsider.” future” in speed.
Ducati, namely through a place “in Grezzini, not in another team”, there was also an opportunity “on the table”, but the rider explained that “the timing was wrong”.
Miguel Oliveira, 27, is ending his contract at the end of the season with Austrian manufacturer KTM, in whose service he made his MotoGP debut in 2019 with Tech3, and in 2021 he will lead the factory team.
The rider from Almada, currently 10th in the classification of riders, with 85 points, 115 less than the Frenchman Fabio Quartararo, the leader and world champion, has four victories in the category “queen” of high-speed motorcycle racing, with triumphs in Portimão and Styria in 2020, Barcelona last year and Indonesia this season.
The ninth place achieved in 2020 was the best classification obtained by Oliveira at the MotoGP World Championship, which was 14th in 2021 and finished 17th in its debut year.
Prior to arriving in MotoGP, Miguel Oliveira placed second in the 2015 Moto3 and 2018 Moto2 worlds, both in KTM, behind Englishman Danny Kent and Italy’s Francesco Bagnaia, respectively.
Next season, the Portuguese driver in the RNF will be partnered with Spaniard Raul Fernandez, who represents Tech3 this season.
In KTM, Miguel Oliveira will be replaced by Australian Jack Miller, who will join South African Brad Binder on the factory team.
RNF Racing is a Malaysian team that debuted in 2022 in the MotoGP championship, in partnership with Yamaha, and has an agreement with Aprilia from next year.
In the current championship, they lined up in a formation belonging to Razlan Razali, whose name uses the first letters of their children’s names (Razali, Nadia and Farouk), Italian Andrea Dovizioso and South African Darrin Binder, younger brother of Brad Binder, Miguel Oliveira’s current KTM teammate.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
