Miguel Oliveira’s MotoGP experience and rider character have been identified as the key reasons for Yamaha to secure his signature at its new satellite squad Pramac.
The most drawn-out rider change for 2025 MotoGP was finally announced on the set-up day at the San Marino Grand Prix when Portugal’s sole representative on the grid was confirmed for Pramac Yamaha for 2025 and 2026, his fifth team and third brand in the premier class.
The 29-year-old, with five MotoGP wins to his name, has ridden KTM RC16 machinery for Tech3 and KTM and then the Aprilia RS-GP for RNF and his present Trackhouse Racing team during a six-year MotoGP stint.
Oliveira has only made the MotoGP podium once with the Italian motorcycle, in this year’s German Grand Prix sprint, but is taking an even bigger step with his move to Japanese equipment for what will be his 15th season at world championship level – having started on a Suter/Honda in his first full-time year of Moto3 in 2012 before a spell steering Indian and European tech.
Even though Oliveira is a proven winner in all three classes, his input to a range of bikes and projects meant he was a valued target for Yamaha as they plough resources and cash into improving their MotoGP competitiveness. “[He] has the technical know-how, experience, speed, and precision needed to improve the performance of the Yamaha YZR-M1,” Yamaha boss Lin Jarvis stated in the official press release.
“Yamaha does not want to wait much longer to come back to the top,” Oliveira said in the Thursday press conference. “After being involved with two different manufacturers, I feel my adaptation capability is quite high. I’m riding in 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.”
Miguel Oliveira, Yamaha Factory Team, Lin Jarvis, Managing Director Yamaha Motor Racing
Photo by: Yamaha
Current team-mate Raul Fernandez has gleaned a lot from Oliveira’s systematic approach to try and extract the best from the seemingly temperamental RS-GP. Even more so when the Spaniard also adopted the latest ’24 model midway through this campaign.
“When I had a lot of problems to understand the bike, especially last year, I saw a lot of his data to understand what happened,” said…
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