Miguel Oliveira could still be “very good test rider” for Aprilia MotoGP project

Despite having signed for BMW in WorldSBK for 2026, Miguel Oliveira still maintains a possibility to be a MotoGP test rider next year.

The Portuguese rider will partner Danilo Petrucci at BMW’s factory World Superbike team next year as confirmed ahead of the Indonesian Grand Prix taking place this weekend (3–5 October) at the Mandalika circuit.

But it does not seem to have ruled him out of MotoGP testing duties.

Oliveira himself insisted that options remain for him in MotoGP speaking ahead of the Indonesian weekend on Thursday, and Trackhouse Aprilia team boss Davide Brivio at least didn’t rule out the possibility of Oliveira becoming an addition to the Noale factory’s official test team in 2026.

“Of course, we have worked with Miguel [Oliveira], he has a lot of knowledge and expertise, and is also a very sensitive rider,” Brivio told the MotoGP world feed broadcast during FP1 in Indonesia.

“He will be a very good test rider from this point of view so I would be happy if he could join Aprilia.

“But I don’t know if they’re talking or not, this is something that Aprilia Racing is taking care of.”

Ogura injury “not ideal”

For Brivio’s own Trackhouse team – racing this weekend in the Gulf livery it started the season with – the Indonesia weekend is complicated by the absence of Ai Ogura, who withdrew from the Mandalika race on Thursday after also missing the Japanese Grand Prix last week following his crash at Misano during the San Marino Grand Prix that resulted in a wrist injury.

“It’s not ideal, especially in a rookie season, to get interrupted from the pathway to learn and to grow,” Brivio said.

“Simply, he had a big crash in Misano, over 260kph, and of course Japan was a home race, he tried his best, made a big effort to come back. After the Sprint race on Saturday it started to be quite painful, so then we withdrew from the Sunday race trying to spend a few more days to recover for Indonesia. 

“But still it looks like racing in Japan took him back to the Misano crash in terms of getting fit.

“So then we decided to withdraw from this weekend and take these couple of weeks before Australia, so the target is to be ready in Australia, Malaysia, for the rest of the season. 

“It was just an effort because of Japan, we tried. We tried also here, he arrived here but he couldn’t race.”

Brivio added that the lack of Ogura, in addition to the absence of Jorge Martin, in Indonesia could have a negative impact on Aprilia’s performance overall with now only the factory team's Marco Bezzecchi and Trackhouse’s Raul Fernandez on-track aboard the RS-GP this weekend.

“It’s already difficult, and especially this weekend and it looks like we have three front tyres that could be all an option for the race,” the Trackhouse Team Principal said.