Trackhouse Racing has signed a new deal with Raul Fernandez that will keep the Spaniard at the Aprilia satellite squad until the end of the 2026 MotoGP season.
Fernandez has been retained by Trackhouse following a series of impressive performances on last year’s Aprilia RS-GP, including front-row starts in Barcelona and Sachsenring and four top-10 finishes in the opening nine rounds.
In fact, despite having to contend with old machinery, Fernandez scored only five fewer points than team-mate Miguel Oliveira in the opening half of the season, putting him right behind the Portuguese rider in 14th place in the championship’ standings.
Fernandez has secured a new contract with the team just as Aprilia is due to hand him the latest-spec bike for the second half of the season, albeit with an old engine due to the regulations.
He will have the newest version of the RS-GP from the get-go in 2025 as part the term of his new deal.
“I’m super happy to remain with Trackhouse Racing MotoGP,” he said. “That’s all we wanted; this new project, with Justin and Davide, is great and they have built a very good team.
“I am delighted to hear their plans for the future as they have a clear idea of what they want to do and for me, from the beginning of the year, it was my priority to try to stay in the team.
“In the end, I get to be here for the next two years which leaves me very satisfied but, of course, this also means we have a lot of work to do.
“We will have the full factory material in 2025 and 2026, obviously great news and right now, we are gearing up to start with a new bike in the middle of this year, so we have to make good use of this to prepare for next year as well.
“We need to stay calm, understand everything about the bike and see what we have to do for the 2025 season – it is very important. “
The 23-year-old is expected to be the only rider within the Aprilia fold to enjoy continuity with the Noale-based brand next year, amid major changes elsewhere at Trackhouse and the factory team.
Oliveira is likely to leave Trackhouse (previously RNF Racing) after two seasons in favour of a move to Pramac, which is set to field an all-new line-up next year following its switch to Yamaha.
The works team, meanwhile, will compete with Jorge Martin and Enea Bastianini, with incumbents Maverick Vinales moving to Tech3 KTM and Aleix Espargaro retiring and taking on a test rider role at Honda.
KTM outcast Jack Miller has now emerged as the prime candidate to take Oliveira’s place at Trackhouse and team up with Fernandez. Moto2 frontrunner Joe Roberts has also been linked to the seat.
“We are happy to secure Raul in our rider line-up for the next two years,” said Trackhouse team principal Davide Brivio.
“Having seen him at work in the last few months, we have appreciated his talent and I feel that he has been changing his approach to racing and that he is willing to work, willing to put in the effort to improve, to solve problems and this is always with a positive approach.
“This is something that we have appreciated and it will be very important to continue for our future, having already 3 year’s experience in MotoGP and knowing the latest 2024 spec Aprilia RS-GP from Silverstone to the end of the season – it will be the best way to prepare Raul for the coming two years.
“I think we have a lot in common; the way of thinking on this project and Raul is happy with his crew, he is happy about the team direction and so there are all the conditions we need to make our challenge stronger, help get Raul to be a stronger rider and keep pushing to make Trackhouse Racing a better MotoGP team.”
