until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
KTM rider Miguel Oliveira moved one step closer to signalling his long-term plans MotoGP plans last weekend when he revealed he had rejected an offer to replace Maverick Vinales at the factory Yamaha team.
Instead he’ll continue to honour the KTM deal that will keep him with his current employer until at least the end of next season.
There has been increasing speculation about whether Oliveira has been considering options outside KTM since the news was announced that team-mate Brad Binder had signed an almost-unprecedented deal to remain with the team until the end of the 2024 season.
Oliveira has been in no hurry to make a similar move, however, stressing that because (unlike Binder) he already has a contract for 2022, there’s no need to try to secure his immediate KTM future.
And the cunning thing is there’s a two-pronged strategy here that means that he’s actually doing the sensible thing by holding fire for now on putting pen to paper.
Firstly, the Portuguese rider didn’t (unlike Binder) commit himself too soon, while the KTM RC16 was still far from the bike that it is right now.
KTM’s opening to the 2021 season was nothing short of disastrous, as the team struggled to make amends for losing out in Michelin’s reshuffled tyre allocation for this year, and it paid the price on track.
Nowhere near close to podium contention for the first few races of the year, it took a new chassis for the Italian Grand Prix to turn things around – and the result was immediate, with second at Mugello followed by a Barcelona win.
It’s perhaps not a surprise given KTM’s ability to fix problems (and thanks to its rather endless resources via title partner Red Bull) that it was able to resolve the issues sooner rather than later – but had it been a case of months rather than weeks, then you can understand why Oliveira might have had cold feet.
Then, there’s the second and to Oliveira perhaps more important reason: the longer he waits, the more his value increases.
Unlike Binder, he’s on the same contract schedule as the majority of the grid’s other factory riders, and as a consequence he knows that he’ll receive offers from other manufacturers if his run of form continues.
So, quite simply, why not wait? Even if his only intention is to remain with KTM for the coming years, he might as well add a few more numbers onto any potential contract when it’s offered to him – something that fellow rider Jack Miller didn’t miss when Oliveira was quizzed on his future while sitting next to him in the Catalan Grand Prix podium press conference.
“About the deal – I have a two year deal and for me that’s good enough,” said Oliveira after taking the win. “Until next season, I don’t have to worry about it. I think only Brad and Marc Marquez have these kinds of deals.
“Marc is an eight-time world champion, Brad is finishing his first season in MotoGP and clearly KTM sees a huge potential in him so they’re taking advantage of that.
“I’m all for that, I’m OK, and I’m just doing my job. I think KTM are happy with that, and I am too – I don’t need confirmation with another three-year contract to know that they like me and they appreciate my job.
“Good things will come in time, and we just need to put in the work.”
However, adding some familiar Miller straight talking and perhaps the closest to honesty, the Ducati rider quickly turned to Oliveira and added: “and if they add a few extra zeroes on the next contract you’ll be happy, right?”
