According to Speed week.com
Miguel Oliveira: Absage an GASGAS – 2023 bei Aprilia
Miguel is headed to Aprilia RNF
Miguel Oliveira has rejected the three-year contract for the new GASGAS Tech3 Factory Team. The Portuguese has reached an agreement with the Aprilia factory and will be presented as a newcomer on Wednesday.
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Miguel Oliveira, who recently finished ninth four times in Mugello, in Catalunya, at the Sachsenring and in Assen, then sixth at Silverstone and twelfth at Spielberg, signed a preliminary contract with Aprilia Racing in the second half of June. At that time, the Portuguese decided to contest the 2023 MotoGP World Championship in Razlan Razali's new WithU RNF Aprilia customer team. He informed his crew chief Paul Trevathan and his team of technicians at Red Bull-KTM about the planned brand change on the evening of the Mugello GP on May 29th and made it clear publicly at the Sachsenring GP three weeks later that he will be leaving KTM .
At the German GP on Thursday, father and manager Paulo Oliveira and son Miguel had an initial chat with Aprilia race director Massimo Rivola. By then there was a contract with Gresini Ducati, at least that was the wish of the Ducati Corse management with Gigi Dall'Igna and Paolo Ciabatti.
But Gresini team owner Nadia Padovani didn't want to pay the requested fee, because Alex Márquez (he comes from LCR-Honda) bought a dowry of 1 million euros from the Spanish brewery Estrella Galicia for the coming season. At Gresini he takes over from Enea Bastianini, who after three MotoGP victories is moving to Ducati Lenovo, replacing Jack Miller.
Spielberg GP: Offered by GASGAS
However, 27-year-old Oliveira remained the most sought-after stock in the MotoGP transfer market even over the summer break, with all teams and factories that still had spots available chasing the Portuguese.
Stefan Pierer, CEO of Pierer Mobility AG with the brands KTM, GASGAS and Husqvarna, did not want to abandon the four-time MotoGP winner to the competition without a word.
Oliveira had received an offer from the Pierer Group in May to switch from the Red Bull KTM Factory Team to Tech3, because for the next two years Jack Miller (three MotoGP wins, fourth in the 2021 World Championship) will take the place alongside Brad Binder in the Red Bull team.
Miguel Oliveira did not want to accept this disgrace, so other offers were considered.
However, the current World Championship tenth has suffered a phase of weakness after fifth place in Assen 2021 and has not achieved a top ten place in the dry in 13 World Championship races in a row until the Portugal GP in April 2022. Although he was ailing for a while from August 2021 because he suffered a painful and protracted hand injury in FP1 at the Styrian GP in early August.
Not least because of the strong improvement in form from the end of May 2022, Stefan Pierer made his Portuguese works driver (Oliveira celebrated all of his 16 GP victories in three classes on a KTM, he was runner-up twice on a KTM) a tempting offer a week ago in Spielberg. "I offered Miguel a three-year contract for the GASGAS Tech3 Factory Team," revealed Stefan Pierer in Austria in an exclusive interview with SPEEDWEEK.com.
However, the Austrian head of the company did not have exaggerated hopes that Paulo and Miguel Oliveira would change their minds. "I don't think Miguel will drive with us in 2023 because he signed a letter of intent at Aprilia," Pierer said eight days ago. “But we assured him before the race in Spielberg that Tech3 will be a real second works team in the future. He didn't know that when we offered him a move to Tech3 in May. If he had known earlier how the Tech3 team would be structured in the future, he might have stayed. It hurt him a bit when we preferred Jack Miller in the Red Bull team. But it is how it is. If he refuses, there is a vacancy at Tech3."
Two KTM riders at Aprilia
Oliveira had to make a decision by last Friday (26 August). The Portuguese and his manager father Paulo are not commenting for the time being. KTM and Hervé Poncharal's GASGAS Tech3 team are also secretive.
According to reliable research by SPEEDWEEK.com, Oliveira turned down Stefan Pierer's offer. Aprilia Racing and the WithU-RNF team will therefore communicate before the Misano GP that the 2023 customer team will have two former KTM riders, Miguel Oliveira and Raúl Fernández (eight Moto2 GP wins in 2021), and RS-GP22 -Machinery is equipped.
"We want a pilot with MotoGP experience in the customer team who is still young, and a young, promising talent as possible," said Rivola and Razali in June.
The GASGAS Tech3 team will be filled with Moto2 World Championship leader Augusto Fernández in 2023. Pol Espargaró, who took five third places in 2020 on the Red Bull-KTM and missed third place in the world championship by just four points, has long been the number 1.
“Maybe Miguel will come back to us in a year or two. The doors are open for him, »said Stefan Pierer.
The MotoGP factory teams 2023
Red Bull KTM (Brad Binder, Jack Miller)
Ducati Lenovo (Pecco Bagnaia, Jorge Martin)
Monster Yamaha (Fabio Quartararo, Franco Morbidelli)
Aprilia Racing (Aleix Espargaró, Maverick Viñales)
Repsol Honda (Marc Márquez, Joan Mir)
The customer teams 2023
Tech3-GASGAS (Pol Espargaró, Augusto Fernández)
Prima Pramac Ducati (Johann Zarco, Jorge Martin)
WithU-Aprilia (Miguel Oliveira, Raúl Fernández)
Mooney VR46 Ducati (Luca Marini, Marco Bezzecchi)
Gresini Racing Ducati (Alex Márquez, Fabio Di Giannantonio )
LCR Honda (Alex Rins, Takaaki Nakagami)
