Miguel Oliveira returned to the MotoGP tracks this Tuesday more than two months later. The Trackhouse Racing rider debuted in the 2024 version of the Aprilia RS-GP, participated in tests of new components, and finished with the 15th fastest time, 0.799s behind the fastest – Jorge Martín (Prima Pramac/Ducati).
The Portuguese rider was pleased with the start of the Malaysian tests: ‘Finally I had a normal test day. Good laps, I had a bit of everything, which means I was able to do some fast laps, I was able to set some rhythm, some aerodynamic work. But besides that, it’s also just taking time for myself, to get some feedback from the bike – actually understanding how it works, how to do it and where to attack. It was a positive day‘.
That being said, despite considering that the bike has great potential, Oliveira is aware that he needs time: ‘There is a lot of work ahead. I feel a lot of potential in the bike, but it takes some time to balance everything. It’s also not easy to manage the tires on the first day – you burn some tires that you know you won’t use. So it’s also difficult to see the classification, where you would be exactly. But we know that the first day is not really for those reasons, although many riders have already been quite fast. But we still have two days ahead, we have time‘.
The #88 also spoke about the difficulties of analyzing the timing table in a testing context: ‘My fastest lap time was only the first time I had the right tires. I mounted the tires, did the lap, everything was like easy and with some room for improvement. Then you start testing and doing many things. When you mount new tires again, the bike was not as it was before in the reference. Maybe you’re lucky, everything works, and you’re faster, or you can’t be faster – that was my case. Besides, these are tests, so you can’t rely too much on what you see‘.
