Moto2 championship leader Manu Gonzalez will make an unexpected MotoGP test debut for Trackhouse Racing, with the Spaniard set to jump onto Ai Ogura’s Aprilia RS-GP in place of the injured Japanese rider during Monday’s post-race test at Motorland Aragon.
Ogura crashed during FP1 at Silverstone and broke his tibia, necessitating surgery afterwards. Hoping to still be able to ride at the Aragon Grand Prix, he was advised by his doctors on Friday to sit out the race, leaving Trackhouse with only Raul Fernandez on track this weekend.
And, with Ogura's bike going free for Monday’s test, the American team has taken a page from its NASCAR counterpart's playbook and decided to give Gonzalez the chance to try out top-tier machinery.
Still to be officially confirmed by the team, it’s believed that the options for the test were either Gonzalez or Brazilian Moto2 racer Diogo Moreira.
Moreira is fifth in the standings in his sophomore Moto2 season, and is someone that has been tentatively linked to the Trackhouse squad in recent weeks as a potential future target for them.
Gonzalez, meanwhile, is in his fourth year of Moto2, but has been this season's clear standout in terms of pace. However, a failed tyre gamble at COTA and a crash at Silverstone mean he's only three points ahead of nearest rival Aron Canet.
Why do it now?
Nominally, Trackhouse has both of its seats filled for 2026, too - but movements elsewhere have already proven again this season that there's always some flexibility for changes to happen.
Gonzalez's call-up is likely aimed at two things.
The most obvious reason is to help prepare a little better for the future should the team lose Ogura to the factory Aprilia squad - in case reigning world champion Jorge Martin does follow through on his threats to leave the Aprilia squad for Honda despite his two-year contract.
Martin's defection would leave Ogura most likely candidate by a long way for Aprilia factory promotion, given the strength of his impressive rookie season so far.
This would then leave Trackhouse without its star talent and mean that a Moto2 candidate would need to be selected to replace the reigning middleweight-class champion.
But there's likely a secondary effect, too, in putting a little bit of pressure on Ogura's team-mate Fernandez. Extended for 2025 and 2026 on a two-year deal and designated as one of the key figures in Aprilia’s development as the only one of its four 2025 riders with previous experience of the bike, his season has so far been a disappointment.
With a yield of only 19 points from the opening eight rounds of the season, it remains to be seen whether Trackhouse - which has so far given no public indication to the contrary - is fully committed to Fernandez for 2026.
