Trackhouse Racing’s 2025 MotoGP riders Raul Fernandez and Ay Ogura are taking different approaches to the upcoming season, but the goal for both is the same: to learn, adapt and improve.
As Trackhouse unveils 2025 live broadcasts for NASCAR and MotoGP, Fernandez and O’Gura talk about their plans for next season.
The two are approaching 2025 from different directions. It’s Fernandez’s first year with the same team he raced with the previous season, and his first start with a factory bike. In the year 2023-spec bike. Fernandez switched to a 2024-spec machine in the middle of the season, a change he struggled with; After last season’s final in Barcelona, he cut a despondent figure in his post-match media appearances.
The post-season test saw Fernandez further evaluate the 2024 bike and learn to work with new crew members, and he said he spent a lot of time working on his mental fitness with team principal David Brivio during the break.
“We have changed the staff. We haven’t tested the new bike, we want to see how the new guys will (work) with the team,” Fernandez said. “It was a different pre-season for me. I was really focused on myself. I switched personal trainers to help me feel fit. I was working on myself in the mental area. I have never started a season in MotoGP with a factory bike. Overall I am very happy.
“I want to be fit, focus and try to do my best. David has helped me a lot. Maybe that’s my problem. I want more than what we have now.
Fernandez is the only rider to continue with Aprilia until the 2025 season. World champions Jorge Martin and Marco Bezecic are joining the factory Aprilia team from Ducati, while Ogura arrives as Moto2 World Champion. However, Fernandez said he does not consider himself the leader of the team and is keen to learn from his teammates. Martin and Ogura are world champions, while Bezcicci is a three-time MotoGP Grand Prix winner.
“It’s very clear to me. I have a lot to learn from them,” Fernandez said.
Ogura is at the beginning of a steep learning curve. The Michelin slicks in MotoGP are very different from the Pirellis used in Moto2, and the RS-GP makes double the horsepower of the victorious Moto2 Boscoscuro.
But Ogura says he didn’t find the bike too taxing on his first ride, and says he spends his off-season training mostly riding on the track. Ogura completed 10 to 12 laps during the Barcelona test and his times were comparable to Somquiat Chantra and Fermin Aldeguerre, the other Moto2 rookies who have moved on to MotoGP for 2025.
“If it’s really important to work on the body, I’ll do it. “I didn’t really feel it – it sounds strange, but I didn’t feel that hard physically in Barcelona,” Ogura said, admitting that the tests in Malaysia and Thailand will be more physically challenging.
“There’s still a lot to understand. I have eight days to start my first race,” Ogura said. “Obviously I’m in a position to learn from the three (Aprilia) riders.”
