Trackhouse Racing is the new Aprilia’s satellite team in MotoGP, taking over from the CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team, which controversially departed the championship after a tumultuous 2023 season.
The initial plans were to continue with RNF in 2024, but the American group was already in line for 2025 – as revealed by Aprilia Racing’s CEO, Massimo Rivola, in the Mister Helmet podcast: ‘The idea was to have another year because the contract with RNF was for another year, and then switch to the Americans. The Americans came into the picture during the year’.
Regarding the choice and timing of Trackhouse Racing’s emergence, the Italian stated: ‘We chose each other among many – also thanks to an old friendship of mine from four-wheelers… Let’s say they saw an opportunity in us, and we saw an important opportunity in them for the future. Then came the call from Dorna saying the opportunity was immediate’.
Despite RNF’s tumultuous end, Rivola emphasized maintaining a good relationship with its founder, Razlan Razali: ‘I kept a good relationship with Razlan because let’s not forget that Razlan and I made the agreement in early 2022 and finalized it in Mugello because I said, «I want to do things calmly, well done, because we have to prepare our team, we have to hire people, and so we have to be ready in Mugello». And that’s what we did. Then, at the end of the year, he lost the main sponsor, Dorna came, and put these others here’.