The year 2023 was marked by several injuries for Miguel Oliveira, the last of which was in his shoulder blade – suffered in the Sprint race of the Qatar GP in November. The recovery has been satisfactory in recent months and the Trackhouse Racing driver believes he is in a good physical condition.
The #88 stated in a press conference: ‘I managed to have some time off to recover. I had the compartment syndrome operation at the end of November while recovering from the shoulder blade injury. It was a tough December, but I managed to handle it to have good training and recovery. I would like to say that I am 100 percent fine, but until I am actually on the competition bike, you don’t really know. I am really looking forward to Sepang to recover this feeling and see how I am in reality’.
Although the MotoGP tests are only in February, Oliveira has already ridden a production bike at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve and had good sensations, as he stated: ‘I have already done three days of riding in Portimão and everything seemed fine. But I rode my Aprilia RSV4, which is very different from the MotoGP bike. Until I am on my real bike, I won’t know for sure, but at the moment I felt good in these three days’.
The Portuguese rider also clarified his caution when evaluating his physical condition: ‘I am ready to start. But until you really compete with the bike and understand… one thing is to have 25 minutes or 20 minutes on a track day with a road bike. The other thing is to compete in MotoGP, they are two different sports. You need to arrive in a very good physical condition in the final phase of the race and you need to be able to achieve the same goals in every lap. This is complicated. I don’t know if I’m there yet, but it’s certain that I am really well at the moment’.
