A weird MotoGP career gets another extension
Raul Fernandez's new two-year deal with Trackhouse Aprilia gives some stability to a MotoGP career still best described as inconclusive.
After a period when Fernandez appeared convinced that team boss Davide Brivio's impending move to Honda was bad news for his future - and Fernandez was even linked to a shock return to the Tech3 KTM team in which he had such a miserable rookie season in 2022 - by the start of the summer break it seemed a foregone conclusion that the 25-year-old would in fact stay put.
That was confirmed by a Trackhouse announcement on Wednesday morning in which team owner Justin Marks said Fernandez had "grown as a rider both on the bike and with his preparation, approach and maturity".
Having won last year's Australian Grand Prix and the Mugello sprint this year, there's no doubt Fernandez has made huge strides from the shaky start to his MotoGP career.
His sole Moto2 season in 2021 was so astonishingly successful (second in the championship in his only crack at a category notoriously hard for rookies to quickly master) that KTM hurriedly triggered its right to promote him to MotoGP to fend off Yamaha interest - announcing both the Fernandez deal and the consequent Tech3 exits of Danilo Petrucci and Iker Lecuona while a practice session was happening. (https://www.the-race.com/motogp/ktms-incredible-move-to-stop-yamaha-grabbing-its-rising-star/)
Fernandez, KTM and Tech3 all had pretty much immediate regrets over that hurried promotion. In a fractious and miserable season, Fernandez only once qualified above 20th and never finished higher than 12th.
That incredible Moto2 season had bought Fernandez enough credit not to be written off - RNF Aprilia threw him a lifeline and he stayed for the team's transformation into Trackhouse. But it took until late 2025 for Fernandez to start consistently showing more than flashes of the form always expected of him, and the fact that uptick coincided with Aprilia's development into the benchmark MotoGP bike didn't feel coincidental. If he'd only come good when he had the best bike, was he really all that special?
Ai Ogura's arrival as his Trackhouse team-mate has done Fernandez's reputation no favours - Ogura's spectacular early rookie season form causing last year's doubts over Fernandez's future and then Ogura's step up into genuine title contention this year overshadowing Fernandez's own progress.
Yet it's Ogura who Fernandez probably owes his new contract to. If Ogura wasn't leaving for Yamaha, Fernandez would look somewhat expendable for 2027. Instead, despite the lingering question marks, he's a very sensible continuity option alongside the expected arrival of Enea Bastianini from Tech3 (which now looks set to sign Luca Marini from Honda for its 'experienced rider' slot that Fernandez had been linked to a few months ago).
"We believe that this team and these bikes are poised to be a consistent championship threat in the years to come and that Raul can help carry us to great heights in this sport," Marks added in the contract renewal announcement.
The second part of that statement sounds more realistic than it did a year ago, but Fernandez still needs to do more, more consistently, for it to genuinely come true.
