Miguel Oliveira “close to the top five”, weighs up WorldSBK offers
Miguel Oliveira claims his best Pramac Yamaha result, weighs up WorldSBK offers for 2026.
A “solid” weekend in Barcelona ended with Miguel Oliveira’s best result as a Yamaha MotoGP rider.
After officially losing out on the remaining 2026 Pramac seat to team-mate Jack Miller on the eve of the event, Oliveira climbed from 16th to tenth in the Sprint, then went one place better in the grand prix.
The Portuguese was one of the fastest riders on track during the final laps but ran out of time to pass Luca Marini’s sliding Honda.
Francesco Bagnaia’s Ducati was just ahead of Marini, while top Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo was only 2.5s in front of Oliveira at the chequered flag.
“It was a pretty solid weekend. Close to the points yesterday, in the top ten today, good pace, no mistakes, and a few overtakes. I‘m happy with the result,” Oliveira said.
“There was some chaos at the start - I tried to stay on the outside, but then the domino effect kicked in when one rider picked up the bike and hit another. I lost a lot of momentum going into Turns 2 and 3, so I couldn‘t make any progress there.
“From that point, I just focused on starting my race and staying calm, and it worked. I expected the track to be worse, but I managed to save the tyres and, in the end, I came close to the top five, even if it was too late to try and catch them.”
Oliveira's seven points in Catalunya almost doubled his season total to 17.
WorldSBK an option for 2026?
Oliveira’s future remains unclear after losing out on the second year of his Pramac deal.
The five-time KTM race winner has been linked with an Aprilia MotoGP test riding role, where he could join Lorenzo Savadori in steering development of the new 850cc machine alongside potential wild-cards.
However, if Oliveira prefers to continue his full-time career, several factory WorldSBK seats are still available.
One of those is at BMW, where Oliveira could effectively ‘swap’ places with reigning WorldSBK champion Toprak Razgatlioglu.
“This [BMW ride] could be an option,” Oliveira said during the Barcelona weekend. “But also Yamaha.
"Nothing is decided at the moment. We are in talks, still nothing concrete, but let’s see.”
Yamaha has a WorldSBK seat available following Jonathan Rea’s recent retirement announcement.
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