Miguel Oliveira left KTM at the end of 2022 and embraced a new challenge with Aprilia in 2023 but the truth is that he may be being considered to have a new team in 2024, with Repsol Honda seeing the Portuguese as a potential replacement for Marc Márquez, who is believed to be leaving the Japanese giant.
The news is reported by the international press at the same time that rumors about Marc Márquez’s future continue to be very much alive, especially now and more than ever after Gigi Dall’Igna recently said that the rider has already decided to effectively leave Honda to embrace a new project with Ducati.
The Portuguese rider is thus on a shortlist of riders with potential to strengthen Honda, which also includes Pedro Acosta, a rider who has secured a promotion to MotoGP with GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3 – for the place of Augusto Fernández, presumably, as the latest news point to a duo in Hervé Poncharal’s structure that includes Pol Espargaró and Pedro Acosta.
According to SPEEDWEEK.com, Honda is ‘contacting all MotoGP riders at the moment’, seeming to be somewhat “desperate”, and sees the riders linked to Aprilia as potential candidates since, as DAZN reports, the manufacturer has also reportedly sounded out Maverick Viñales.
Johann Zarco, it is worth noting, has already been confirmed as a rider for LCR Honda, and it seems highly unlikely that Iker Lecuona will take Márquez’s place, despite having a contract with the factory Honda team, for which he rides in the World Superbike Championship and has already been used several times this year to substitute riders in MotoGP.
When looking at the current scenario, it is worth noting that Oliveira was already mentioned to ride for LCR Honda by the end of 2022, besides his widely recognized ability to develop bikes, even though #88 has a direct contract with Aprilia until the end of 2024.
