2018 MotoGP News Saturday from Jerez
Oliveira Moving to MotoGP in 2019
KTM continued to hog the headlines at Jerez, with news that Portuguese rider Miguel Oliveira will move up to MotoGP next year, as the first rider to sign up for new KTM satellite team Tech 3.
The news broke before lunch on Saturday, and with Zarco joining Pol Espargaro in the factory team leaves just one seat in the satellite team, which has been promised full factory support and identical machines.
Said Oliveira, in an official statement, “It is very early in the season but I am really happy that KTM have seen enough from this year and the last to trust me. And believe I deserve this opportunity in MotoGP.”
The 23-year-old will be the first Portuguese rider in the premier class, and the first to demonstrate KTM’s career ladder though the classes.
Motorsports Director Pit Beirer said: “This is an emotional step for us because it proves all what we have said about building a structure in this paddock and being able to come from the Red Bull Rookies Cup, go through the classes with us and end up in a MotoGP team.”
Oliveira brings a growing reputation. He gave Mahindra its first podiums in Moto3, then switched to KTM and ran Danny Kent very close in the 2015 Moto3 championship. Last year, his second in Moto2, he won the last three races to finish third overall.
Team owner Herve Poncharal confirmed that Oliveira will inherit Zarco’s full pit crew, led by legendary spanner-man and Tech 3 co-founder Guy Coulon.
The decision means dwindling hopes for current KTM factory teamster Bradley Smith. Smith rode a Yamaha for Tech 3 between 2013 and 2016, twice on the podium – but Poncharal has indicated he will be looking for a youngster for the second slot.
Footnote: Tech 3 also confirmed that they plan to switch to KTM in Moto2 next year, after nine years of campaigning their own Mistral chassis.
2018 MotoGP News Saturday from Jerez
Yamaha has Issues in the Heat
Yamaha’s problems in hot weather returned at Jerez, with only independent rider Johann Zarco able to set a good qualifying time, and an increasingly disconsolate Maverick Vinales saying that the situation “is exactly like last year … and maybe worse”.
The difficulty is most expressed by wheelspin, with Rossi also suffering. The factory pair qualified tenth and 11th, Rossi marginally faster.
With Zarco placed third, on the front row of the grid, it was left to him to explain. “Maybe we suffer more in hot or slippery conditions because of losing grip at high lean angles.” The character of the Yamaha was to rely on high mid-corner speed, he said.
2018 MotoGP News Saturday from Jerez
Crutchlow Possibly Eyeing Factory Ride
With Dovizioso openly flirting with HRC, and both Lorenzo and Iannone up in the air for next year, Cal Crutchlow is the latest rider to fuel rumours of a marque switch in search of a full factory seat.
The Argentine GP winner is contracted directly to HRC for this year and next, but provocatively told pressmen that “a contract is only worth the paper it’s written on”, because it was always possible to buy your way out of it.
“I’m happy with Honda and the way they are treating me at the moment,” he said. “But in the end you have to look at all situations, for your career or your life.”
