Aprilia had a satellite team for the first time in MotoGP last year – RNF, which has been replaced by Trackhouse Racing this year. However, Miguel Oliveira and Raúl Fernández’s season was far from easy.
Throughout the year, both riders experienced some technical issues with the bikes. In 2024, in just the second Grand Prix, it was Maverick Viñales – a rider from Aprilia’s factory team – who retired due to a breakdown.
Ramón Forcada, who was with RNF in 2023, said on the Dura la Vita podcast: ‘They had two types of failures, especially last year they had an excess of confidence when they took on the satellite team, they thought they would be able to handle it, and they couldn’t’.
The engineer also emphasized: ‘They were doing very well in the factory team and didn’t have time to manufacture parts for the satellite team. Most of the problems that the satellite team had last year were related to mileage. They didn’t have the capacity to produce parts’.
RNF finished last year’s team championship in eighth position, with Oliveira’s fourth place in Silverstone as their best result. They recorded 12 retirements between their two riders, with three races where neither reached the finish line.