While Ducati and Aprilia continue to dominate the MotoGP title fight, Trackhouse Racing has emerged as one of the championship’s biggest success stories, with Ai Ogura and Raul Fernandez disrupting the established order and transforming the American-backed team into an unexpected front-runner.
The independent Aprilia outfit has enjoyed a remarkable surge in form over the past month. Across the last four race weekends, Ogura collected 91 championship points and Fernandez added 70, outperforming Aprilia factory riders Jorge Martin, who scored 66 points, and Marco Bezzecchi, who managed 44 over the same period. Only Marc Marquez, with 96 points following his return from shoulder surgery, accumulated more.
Their progress reached its peak at Assen, where Trackhouse completed a stunning one-two finish in both the sprint race and the Dutch Grand Prix. Fernandez led home Ogura on Saturday before the Japanese rookie reversed the result in Sunday’s main race to secure the biggest victory of his MotoGP career.
The achievement marked another milestone for a team that entered MotoGP only ahead of the 2024 season after taking over the former RNF Racing operation.
Much of the credit has been directed toward team principal Davide Brivio, whose appointment shortly before the 2024 campaign proved pivotal in accelerating Trackhouse’s development.
Brivio previously played a central role in Yamaha’s success with Valentino Rossi, guided Suzuki to Joan Mir’s 2020 MotoGP title and later served as racing director for Alpine in Formula One before returning to motorcycle racing.
Rather than approaching the job purely from an engineering perspective, Brivio has built a reputation for combining technical understanding with strong leadership and an emphasis on rider management.
Those qualities have been especially evident in Fernandez’s resurgence.
After several difficult seasons, the Spaniard has become one of MotoGP’s most consistent performers, frequently crediting Brivio’s confidence in him for helping rebuild his career.
“Davide has been my biggest supporter throughout this journey. I owe him enormously for being where I am today,” Fernandez said.
Brivio’s influence has been equally significant in Ogura’s emergence.
The Italian pushed to sign the Japanese rider before he had even secured the 2024 Moto2 world championship, a decision that surprised many throughout the paddock at the time.
That gamble has now been fully rewarded.
Ogura delivered Japan’s first premier-class Grand Prix victory since Makoto Tamada won in 2004, while his performances have also earned him a factory Yamaha contract beginning in 2027 alongside Jorge Martin.
“For any independent team, scoring a one-two finish is a dream,” Brivio said after the Dutch Grand Prix. “Doing it in the sprint is already something special, but achieving it again in the grand prix means even more, especially considering we’re the newest team in MotoGP.”
Brivio also praised Aprilia’s technical progress, noting that the manufacturer’s motorcycles locked out the top four positions on the starting grid at Assen.
“The simplest explanation for what happened at Assen is that our riders found a way to go faster than the factory riders,” he said.
He singled out Ogura’s intelligence and steady development as among the finest he has witnessed during his career.
“Ai is one of the best riders I’ve ever worked with, and I’ve worked with many,” Brivio said. “He improves step by step, he’s incredibly intelligent and knows how to learn from every experience. He never goes backwards.”
He also credited Fernandez for finally demonstrating the speed many believed he possessed.
“With Raul, we’ve managed to put him in the best possible position to show what he’s capable of,” Brivio said.
Trackhouse’s rapid ascent has lifted the team to second place in the MotoGP teams’ championship, but Brivio’s tenure is approaching its conclusion.
The Italian will leave at the end of the 2026 season to join Honda, with Francesco Guidotti already assuming responsibility for long-term planning while Brivio oversees sporting operations through the remainder of the campaign.
One of Guidotti’s first major tasks will be finalizing the team’s 2027 rider lineup.
Trackhouse hopes to secure Enea Bastianini if KTM releases him from his contractual renewal option, while negotiations continue with Fernandez over a contract extension. The principal obstacle remains contract length, with Fernandez seeking a two-year agreement while the team has so far offered only a one-year deal.
Regardless of how those discussions conclude, Trackhouse has already established itself as one of MotoGP’s fastest-rising organizations, proving that an independent team can challenge factory rivals through strong leadership, smart rider recruitment and steady technical development.
