Oliveira ‘starving for results’ ahead of second home race

Without a top ten finish since round nine at Assen, KTM rider Miguel Oliveira is ‘starving for results’ ahead of his second home Grand Prix at Portimao.

Robert Jones

02 Nov 2021

Miguel Oliveira, Emilia-Romagna MotoGP, 23 October 2021
© Gold and Goose

KTM rider Miguel Oliveira heads into his second home round of the 2021 MotoGP season looking to stop a seven-race drought without a top ten finish.

Since the summer break, Oliveira and KTM have struggled to put any type of consistent performances together.

Injury and a tyre defect cost the Portuguese rider in Austria, however, disappointing showings at Silverstone and Aragon left the 26 year-old with just two points from both events.

Oliveira’s best result since claiming fifth at Assen was 11th in last month’s Grand Prix of the Americas.

It’s a considerable drop in form considering Oliveira was the highest points scorer across the final four races before the summer break.

The KTM man was in such a rich vein of form that even a championship challenge looked possible.

Speaking about the 2021 season with just two rounds to go, Oliveira said: "It’s been a difficult season for sure, especially this second half.

"It’s been hard struggling with small issues and it’s a season where I feel like I could have done much better in some places. But, we have always kept a positive attitude and have been fighting each race to get the most out of it.

"The start of the season was close to a disaster because we suffered a lot to get around this new front tyre compound that we had.

"We have been developing the bike specifically in the front end to have a very stiff tyre - we won with that tyre in three races in 2020 - I won two of them with that spec, but then all of a sudden we don’t have that anymore.

"We had to transform a little bit our philosophy in the garage; how we look at the bike and how we approach the weekend in terms of setting."

While this season hasn’t quite gone to plan for KTM - same amount of wins as 2020 (3), but less podiums, Oliveira is looking forward to 2022 and making the ‘fewest mistakes possible’.

"I’m not hungry, I’m starving for results and I want to finish the season really well," added Oliveira ahead of his second home race this weekend.

"Of course, with the home GP it’s special, but it will be taken as just another GP, with the same ambition and hunger to perform.

"In 2022 I think we will have a more complete package. I think qualifying better is the goal.

"We are one of the manufacturers that pushes the most on the front and this is something we need to fix. I’m looking at next season as a year where we make the fewest mistakes possible."