Miguel Oliveira returned to the MotoGP tracks this Tuesday after more than two months. The Trackhouse Racing rider debuted the 2024 version of the Aprilia RS-GP, participated in testing new components, and finished with the 15th fastest time, 0.799s behind the fastest – Jorge Martín (Prima Pramac/Ducati).
The Portuguese rider was pleased with the start of the Malaysian tests: ‘It’s normal. Finally it was a normal day testing. Good laps, I’ve got a bit of everything, meaning that I could do some fast laps, I could do a bit of pace, some aerodynamic work. But rather than that just taking time also to myself to get some feedback from the bike – actually understand how it does, how it does and where to push. It was a positive day’.
That said, despite considering the bike has good potential, Oliveira is aware that it needs time: ‘There is a lot of work ahead. I feel a lot of potential in the bike, but it needs some time to balance everything. But overall, it’s a good feeling. Also it isn’t easy to manage the tyres in the first day – you burn some tyres you know that you will not use. So it’s hard to see also the ranking, where you would be exactly. But we know the first day isn’t really for those reasons, although a lot of guys went already super fast. But we still have two days ahead, we have time’.
The #88 also talked about the difficulties in analyzing the timing table in the context of testing: ‘My fastest lap time was just the first time I had the correct tyres. I put the tyres, I did the lap, everything was sort of easy and with some room to improve. Then you start testing and doing a lot of things. Once you put new tyres again, the bike isn’t as it was before in the reference. Maybe you are lucky, everything works out and you are going faster, or you cannot go faster – it was my case. Apart from that, it’s testing, so you can’t rely so much on what you see’.