In another MotoGP season, Trackhouse picking up Ai Ogura may well have been the biggest shock of the silly season.
And even in 2024 - a year that featured the protracted Marc Marquez/Jorge Martin saga at Ducati and the assembly of an unlikely Maverick Vinales/Enea Bastianini line-up at Tech3 KTM - it still holds its own as a real eyebrow-raiser.
It is the first time the newest MotoGP team has truly made a big impact on the rider market - and a move it has not shied away from discussing, with veteran team boss Davide Brivio happily facing up to the media for a 20-minute grilling in the Red Bull Ring media centre.
Here are the potential pitfalls of Ogura's signing that were either put to Brivio or were ones he brought up himself - and why none of them swung the decision in another rider's favour.
REASON NOT TO #1: APRILIA'S PREFERENCE
Ogura, who has joined Trackhouse on a two-year deal, is the last addition to a four-rider Aprilia 2025 roster - in which only one of the four, Raul Fernandez, will have had prior race starts on the RS-GP going into the '25 season opener in Thailand.
Aprilia's full works line-up refresh - with Marco Bezzecchi and 2024 title contender Jorge Martin incoming - means there was an argument for Trackhouse to fully commit to continuity, but things appeared to be trending towards a split with incumbent rider Miguel Oliveira for much of the season.
At the Red Bull Ring, with that split official, Oliveira positioned it as a mutual decision - but both he and Brivio indicated that it was Trackhouse and not Oliveira who 'committed' to the split.
Brivio said choosing between keeping Oliveira and letting go was "the most difficult part" of Trackhouse's 2025 evaluation.
"We have nothing to complain [about] with Miguel, he is of course a great rider, a very talented rider, working hard... of course he has a better potential than what we're doing [with him] now," Brivio said.
But he also revealed that Aprilia was keener to keep Oliveira in the camp than may have seemed a few months ago.
"In the end this has been more our choice than Aprilia's choice, in case of Ai," added Brivio.
"In case of [a two-year extension for] Raul, they were happy. And in case of Ai - I mean, there's no secret, Massimo [Rivola, Aprilia racing boss] was also happy about keeping Miguel.
"It was a kind of, let's say, dilemma, no? Because having factory teams that are changing the riders, it would've been on one side maybe a good decision to keep both Raul and Miguel, that they know the bike. Now we have only Raul that knows the bike.
"It's no secret that Aprilia probably would've preferred to have Miguel for stability reasons."
REASON NOT TO #2: THE CLAMOUR FOR ROBERTS
Trackhouse's identity as an American outfit has been front-and-centre of its MotoGP efforts so far, to the extent where it ran a Stars-and-Stripes livery for much of the season until pivoting away from Silverstone onwards for an undisclosed reason.
But this has not extended to prioritising having a USA rider above all, as Trackhouse's willingness to run a rookie did not translate to a seat for 27-year-old California native Joe Roberts
This season has been the strongest of Roberts' seven in the intermediate class so far. He is part of the title fight despite having missed a race at Assen - and remains the highest-scoring rider of those on the Kalex chassis, in a season so far largely dominated by Kalex's rival manufacturer Boscoscuro.
Roberts vs. Ogura
2024
Ogura: 2nd, 142 points, 2 wins, 4 podiums
Roberts: 3rd, 130 points, 1 win, 4 podiums
Moto2 career
Ogura: 64 starts, 5 wins, 15 podiums
Roberts: 122 starts, 2 wins, 8 podiums
Brivio faced several questions about favouring Ogura over Roberts.
"Of course, we always said, it would be nice to have an American rider in the American team," he acknowledged.
"And then of course Joe Roberts was on our list, on our shortlist. We considered him.
"We've been regularly in contact also with John Hopkins, his manager. I had a meeting with him. Also Justin [Marks, team owner] had direct contact with them.
"We made some evaluations - more, let's say, from a potential sports performance point of view. Then - right or wrong, I will tell you in a couple of years. But you have to take a decision.
"So we made our evaluation, our analysis, and we decided that Ai was a better choice for our project. Regardless of the passport."
REASON NOT TO #3: MOTOGP INTEREST IN US RIDER
It was not just a question of fan response and Trackhouse's identity. As Brivio openly acknowledged, there was an implied interest from MotoGP promoter Dorna in having an American rider on the grid - its first full-timer from the USA since the late Nicky Hayden in 2015.
"Let's say we knew Dorna would've been happy if we would have Joe Roberts," said Brivio.
"We knew - of course, everybody knows - that an American rider is important for the championship."
Brivio clarified that there was "not really" a direct request from Dorna, and certainly not any financial incentivising.
"We all know that America is important [as a market]. But we didn't get any pressure or any special request about that," he said.
Brivio did also emphasise that Ogura represented an important market himself - and Trackhouse's move to snap up the Japanese rider may well have opened the door for a different nation (and likewise an important market) to get a representative onto the grid, with the LCR Honda seat that would've been earmarked for Ogura now potentially going to Thailand's Somkiat Chantra.
REASON NOT TO #4: THE 'DANGER' FOR A SATELLITE TEAM
Brivio does not believe there is a mismatch in Trackhouse, a new team still very much establishing itself in MotoGP, going for a rookie - instead seeing it as a positive that the "full project" can grow into something together, with both Ogura and the still-quite-young Fernandez.
What he did admit, and did so unprompted, was that making signings for a satellite team carried an inherent risk.
"It's not easy to have a rookie in a team," said Brivio.
"We know that next year we have to spend one year without expecting anything, just let him enjoy, let him make experience, and then you try to see if you can pick up some flashes. Maybe one free practice 'okay, wow', one qualifying maybe sometimes not so bad. You try to understand, to pick up signs through the way.
"And then hopefully in the second and third year you try to do something.
"Of course, there is some danger in this decision, as an independent team.
"If he [Ogura] will be good, maybe in '27 somebody will try to steal him from us.
"Okay, we will try to make him happy. Of course we hope that it's a medium-term programme, but I know the risk. We will try to create a good environment around him, the most important thing is to continue to have a competitive bike, and to convince both Raul and Ai to stay with us as long as possible.
"Even though it's a big challenge because we know - when a factory team calls, normally they [the riders] answer."
So why Ogura?
All of the aforementioned risks can swing a decision - but only if a team isn't fully confident in the rider, or isn't fully confident in its own talent evaluation.
But Brivio, though sensible enough to repeatedly admit he and his team could be wrong here, is "confident". And he's earned the right to be.
Brivio's headline MotoGP success is luring over Valentino Rossi to Yamaha, but that didn't require any sort of massive scouting know-how.
More relevant is him grabbing Jorge Lorenzo for Yamaha even before the Spaniard's back-to-back 250cc titles - and more relevant still is Brivio then going 3-for-3 with young rider signings at Suzuki, making Maverick Vinales and Alex Rins into MotoGP stars and Joan Mir into a premier-class champion.
"Whoever you choose has never been in MotoGP. You have no possibility to check - you will see later," said Brivio of choosing Ogura.
"We appreciate what Ai is doing in his championship. He won races, I feel he has a kind of resilience - maybe [when] he has not a good start, he's behind, he recovers, he never gives up.
"Then we think his style can evolve in a way to a MotoGP bike. So... few reasons like this, and we thought he was a good choice."
If Brivio has decided Ogura is his guy, after everything he's done he can only back himself - and he clearly did. And so did Trackhouse - after all, why bring in Davide Brivio to run your team if you aren't going to let him work his magic?
