MotoGP 2024 Season Review - Trackhouse (Patreon)

A sneak preview of Part 1...

Miguel Oliveira – 15th in Points (75), 1 Sprint Podium, Best Finish – 6th / Grand Prix Ranking – 16th / Sprint Ranking – 15th (15 Races)

Raul Fernandez – 16th in Points (66), Best Finish – 6th / Grand Prix Ranking – 15th / Sprint Ranking – 17th

This was the most interesting team in MotoGP going into the year because no one quite knew what they were going to be once we got going. Some had them down as podium chasers, others complete busts. Now the year is done my general stance has been… more bad than good.

Now, I don’t want to pin all of this on Justin Marks’ feet. This was already a poorly run team in legal and political turmoil before Dorna intervened, and a team that lost a lot of key personnel from the RNF days. It was always going to be a challenge for a first-time MotoGP team owner to come in and immediately turn things around, even if they proved they were prepared to spend big early on via factory Aprilias and the acquisition of Davide Brivio of Renault and Suzuki as team boss. 

But the transition to Aprilia’s didn’t go well. They often failed to extract the same level of performance compared to the factory team (And they struggled with that at the best of times), and they didn’t get a second 2024 Aprilia for their chosen lead rider in Raul Fernandez until Silverstone, halfway through the season. An injury to Miguel Oliveira late on in the season derailed a lot of track time too, leading to them finishing ninth out of 11 teams overall, only ahead of the Honda teams by year’s end. 

There was almost certainly some disconnect between Oliveira and Trackhouse because the rumours were strong from early doors that he was being pushed out, and people got very defensive about him on the bird apps. I still think he was the man to lead the team with his experience and upside (especially in the wet), but something was off about it.

Even more so when you consider the team was adamant that Raul Fernandez had the higher ceiling… which I just haven’t seen yet. We got one very quick flash when he led the Sprint race at Catalunya 1, but the rush of blood to the head he had from leading the race led to him missing his braking point by 100 feet and crashing out. 

And the scoreboard doesn’t lie. Miguel missed a quarter of the season through injury and he still beat Fernandez by 9 points. And what’s concerning to me is, there wasn’t a noticeable uptick in results pre/post-2024 Aprilia. (43 of his 66 points were on last year’s bike). I suspect a lot of this is more down to KTM ruining what was an S-Tier prospect entering MotoGP, but we’re heading into Year 4 of his career and he needs to show something to validate his seat in my opinion.

Miguel Oliveira – 5/10 / Raul Fernandez – 4/10