until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
Current KTM riders Miguel Oliveira and Raul Fernandez will represent Aprilia’s new MotoGP satellite team RNF in the 2023 season after each agreeing two-year deals.
The team, owned by ex-Sepang circuit boss Razlan Razali, will switch to fielding year-old Aprilia RS-GPs after it leaves the Yamaha camp at the end of the current campaign.
Of its two incumbent riders, Andrea Dovizioso, will call time on his career this weekend at Misano, while Darryn Binder is aiming to secure a ride in Moto2.
Oliveira, a four-time race winner with KTM, rebuffed the Austrian firm’s attempts to keep him in its ranks after it picked Jack Miller to replace him at the works outfit.
KTM mounted a late push to hang onto the Portuguese after rebranding its satellite team Tech3 as the Gas Gas Factory Racing Team, and – as reported by Speedweek – went as far as offering him a three-year contract.
⚠️⚠️⚠️ BREAKING NEWS ⚠️⚠️⚠️
Meet our 2023 WithU RNF MotoGP Team Riders 💥#rnfmotogpteam | #WithU | #WithUmotorsport | #MotoGP @_moliveira88 @25RaulFernandez @MotoGP pic.twitter.com/relW3kniAV
— WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team (@rnfracingteam) August 30, 2022
But 27-year-old Oliveira, who was in talks with Ducati squad Gresini earlier this year before its vacant seat was taken by Alex Marquez, has opted for a change of machinery after all.
Joining the Portuguese in the first-ever RNF Aprilia line-up is 21-year-old Fernandez, who is the lowest-scoring full-time rider this season a year on from producing one of the best rookie campaigns in Moto2 history.
Fernandez wasn’t thought to have favoured a MotoGP promotion with KTM, and has not gelled with the RC16 bike. And having been a target for RNF in its previous Petronas Yamaha guise, he has finally sealed the move to Razali’s outfit – which it is believed required him to provide certain financial concessions to his current employer.
“It has not been a simple process, but together with Aprilia we are very clear on the riders that we wanted,” said Razali.
Razali also described both as “young riders with a good combination of experience”, and said specifically that he was “a fan” of Fernandez “since he shocked the Moto2 category last year”.
The announcement officially frees up one seat at Gas Gas, alongside the recently recruited Pol Espargaro.
But with Fernandez’s current Tech3 team-mate Remy Gardner having admitted that, after months of looking the favourite to stay, he was suddenly set to drop off the MotoGP grid, it makes Moto2 frontrunner Augusto Fernandez (no relation to Raul) the favourite to partner Espargaro.
The 24-year-old – who represents the same KTM Ajo team that took Gardner to the 2021 Moto2 title and Raul Fernandez to second place – has been racing in the intermediate class with intermittent success since 2017, and is currently in the thick of a title battle of his own, trailing Honda protege Ai Ogura by one point.
