The Miguel Oliveira to Honda rumours: One year was ‘just too risky, happy where I am’

Miguel Oliveira was one of the first in a long line of riders to be linked to Marc Marquez’s vacant Repsol Honda MotoGP seat for the 2024 season.
Miguel
Miguel

No꧅t only🀅 is the Portuguese a proven five-time MotoGP winner with KTM, he could also have brought Aprilia experience to HRC.

But the Honda talks soon🍒 fizzled out when it appeared that only a o♊ne-year deal was on offer for the satellite RNF rider.

“They want a rider to go there for o𒊎ne year and nowadays I think it is just too risky to do it,” Oliveira explained at the time.

“The𒀰y [Honda] are the biggest manufacturer in the world with all the economic and most likely human ability to build up a bike and a strong team, it’s just… as a rider are you going to break a relationship with one manufacturer to go to another without more guarantees of the future?

“Every rider [finishes] this two-year contract cycle next year, so everything will be open [for 2025]. I just don’t see how it will be possible to ris꧅k that much [switching to Honda] without guarantees to continue. It would be too hard.

“It’s a business,ꦬ they [manufacturers] look for opportunities and so do we. Sometimes our expectations don’t match what is off📖ered and what is possible for a manufacturer. So I am not disappointed.”

Nonetheless, Oliveira confirmed that a two-year deal would have made a fཧactory Honda move much more tempting.

“It would be different for sure because it is a factory seat and I can only possib𒐪ly have a factory seat in ’25 or ’26,” Ol♛iveira said.

“So in that case they would offer me more than what I have now🅷 [at Aprilia] but I would still have to break a relationship [early]. Tha♕t’s why I am happy where I am now.”

After other experienced riders also declined a one-year offer, for similar reasons, Honda eventually 🐭secured Luca Marini on a two-year deal.

Nonetheless, Oliveira, who took a best finish of fourth in an injury-ravaged debut year at Aprilia, might yet have access to 2024 factory spec bikes at the newly 'rebranded' Trackhouse Aprilia team next seas🐠on.

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