Ai Ogura to join Trackhouse Racing in 2025

Trackhouse Racing have completed their MotoGP rider lineup for 2025, with Moto2’s Ai Ogura to join Raul Fernandez at the Aprilia satellite team on a two-year deal. Ogura may join the premier class team as a World Champion, too, as the 23-year-old from Tokyo was leading the Moto2 championship at time of writing.

Ogura will replace Miguel Oliveira at Trackhouse Racing, while Fernandez will be in his third season with the team formerly known as RNF Racing.

In 2025, Fernandez and Ogura will run the same Aprilia RS-GP bikes as the works team, which signed Jorge Martin and Marco Bezzecchi as replacements for Maverick Vinales and the retiring Aleix Espargaro in June.

While some had predicted Trackhouse Racing’s American owners would choose the American Moto2 rider, Joe Roberts, they ultimately selected Ogura to make the step up to MotoGP. On numbers alone, Ogura has a better record than Roberts, with a little over half the number of race starts for more than twice the wins.

The choice of Ogura can be credited largely to Trackhouse Racing Team Principal, Davide Brivio, who has a good record in recognising and attracting talent. This has included bringing Maverick Vinales, Alex Rins and Joan Mir to Suzuki’s MotoGP project, as well as signing Jorge Lorenzo to Yamaha prior to his 250cc word titles.

“We are excited to have finalised the opportunity to start a new project with Ai, one of the most talented riders in Moto2,” said Brivio. “We appreciate his riding style, his resilience during races and we feel Ai has the potential to become a great MotoGP rider.

“I think that, with Raul as the young but experienced rider and Ai as the new, growing talent, Trackhouse has secured a strong rider line-up for the future.”

Ogura started international competition in the Idemitsu Asia Talent Cup in 2015, spending two years in that championship (finishing second overall in 2016) before moving to the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup, then the Junior GP World Championship. From there, Ogura made his Moto3 Word Championship debut in 2018.

In three years of Moto3, Ogura achieved eight podiums and a best championship placing of second (in 2020), before progressing to Moto2 in 2021. A learning year was followed by an impressive 2022, with Ogura achieving three race wins and finishing second overall in the championship.

Season 2023 was interrupted by injury, with no wins and only three podiums, but with a new team and new chassis this year, Ogura is on track for the Moto2 championship again. At time of writing, the Japanese rider had three race wins, two other podiums and was leading the championship.

“MotoGP is the maximum level you can have, so I’m obviously really happy to make it there,” Ogura said. “I’m very happy to be able to race in the top class and I can’t wait to do it together with Trackhouse Racing MotoGP Team.

“I can see that the team is really competitive and the bike is very strong. As a rider, my job is doing what I can with everything I have. I’m very happy to be part of Trackhouse and make this step up to MotoGP with them - I’m looking forward to start 2025.”