The unique “pressure” MotoGP’s newest team faced to win its first race

Trackhouse MotoGP team boss Davide Brivio admits the squad “felt the pressure” of trying to score a win given the outfit’s success in NASCAR.

The American team joined the MotoGP grid last year, taking over the satellite Aprilia operation previously run by Razlan Razali’s RNF squad.

Forging closer factory ties with Aprilia, Trackhouse has shown flashes of speed in its first two years.

But it all came together last weekend at the Australian Grand Prix, as Raul Fernandez controlled the 27-lap race to claim his and Trackhouse’s maiden MotoGP victory.

Since its debut in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2021, Trackhouse has been something of a disruptor to the established teams in the stock car championship.

In its relatively short history, it has scored 14 Cup victories, including five this season between its drivers Ross Chastain and Shane van Gisbergen.

Brivio admits Trackhouse’s success in NASCAR this season put some pressure on the MotoGP side to step up and match this form.

“In the end, we didn’t start really from scratch, to be honest, because that was the RNF team,” he said.

“Of course, with Trackhouse, a new management, an American company, we tried to put our vision into the project.

“The idea is to try to challenge the independent teams, the factory teams, and then this result gives us more motivation to go to this target.

“We have great support from Trackhouse, from Justin [Marks, team owner].

“I’m also happy we won because we won five races in NASCAR.

“We needed to do something in MotoGP, so we felt the pressure! And here we are, and we did it, so I’m very happy.”

How Trackhouse is a year ahead of schedule in its MotoGP ambitions

Trackhouse began exploring the idea of coming to MotoGP in 2023, following a visit to the Austrian Grand Prix.

The original aim was a potential debut in 2025. However, an opportunity presented itself at the end of 2023 when the RNF team faced collapse as a result of title sponsor CryptoData’s unpaid bills in the championship.

Following the 2023 Valencia Grand Prix, Dorna announced that it would not accept RNF onto the 2024 grid for breaches of the participation agreement.

At the same time, rumours were building in the paddock that Trackhouse would take over the operation, accelerating the timeline of its ambitions to join the grid.

Trackhouse inherited all of the previous RNF structure, as well as Raul Fernandez and Miguel Oliveira, but also increased its factory ties with Aprilia. This came in the form of a third factory RS-GP being built by the brand for Oliveira, while Fernandez received the new bike (minus the engine) midway through 2024.

The team scored its first podium in Germany that year in the sprint, when Oliveira was second. It would finish ninth in the teams’ standings.

Trackhouse wanted to expand its profile outside of America and felt MotoGP was the right place to do that. This goes a long way to explaining its surprising decision for 2025 to not promote a young American talent in Joe Roberts.

Instead, it elected to retain Fernandez and bring up Moto2 world champion Ai Ogura. While Trackhouse wants to bring American talent into MotoGP, it has previously said it wants to do so with a proper grassroots structure in place.

Ogura hit the ground running in his rookie season, with a double top five in Thailand. Results have cooled as the season has gone on, however, as Ogura faced numerous injury setbacks.

Fernandez grew into a consistent top 10 finisher in the middle part of 2025, but has kicked on since his first podium in the sprint at Mandalika a few weeks ago, prior to his Australian Grand Prix victory.

Trackhouse’s recent success also coincides with Aprilia’s RS-GP continually making steps towards becoming the grid’s best bike. As such, expectations within a team already punching above its weight will only grow.