SEPANG: The RNF MotoGP Racing Team have an optimistic outlook for the 2023 season of the World Motorcycle Championship (MotoGP) with the arrival of two new riders, Miguel Oliveira and Raul Fernandez.
The team will also be using new machines, switching from Yamaha to Aprilia.
The team’s principal, Datuk Razlan Razali, said that the ‘new look’ squad would be lookingto compete and challenge for the podium.
“In the past couple of seasons we struggled a bit and, in 2022, the performance of our riders was not great while the main sponsors also withdrew, so we were in financial difficulty.
“With a new look squad, our target is to get good results, from the experience since 2012 we started well, and we became runners-up in 2020. So this year, I really want results. We want to push to be competitive, if possible we want to get on the podium,“ he told reporters at the 2023 MotoGP Winter pre-season test session here today.
The three-day test session is being held at the Sepang International Circuit (SIC), here beginning today.
Commenting on today’s session, Razlan said his riders showed a positive performance even though Oliveira was only driving the machine for the second time, while it was the first outing for Fernandez.
Earlier, Oliveira was ranked 14th with a time of 1 minute 59.730 seconds recorded in the 39th of 50 laps, while Fernandez was 15th with a time of 1:59.826s, recorded in the 52nd of 59 laps.
Portuguese rider Oliveira, 28, has recorded five victories in 68 races in the MotoGP class, in addition to successfully winning two races in Southeast Asia last season, namely the Indonesian and Thai Grand Prix.
Fernandez, meanwhile, was a ‘rookie’ rider in the 2022 season, earning a total of 14 points in addition to finishing 15th in the Malaysian Grand Prix. - Bernama
