Oliveira on Aprilia: “Fabiano Sterlacchini was the missing piece of the jigsaw”

Aprilia is currently number one in the 2026 MotoGP season. Despite the run of success that champion Marc Márquez recently enjoyed with Ducati, this year the four RS-GP riders – Marco Bezzecchi, Jorge Martín, Ai Ogura and Raúl Fernández – are regularly securing victories. Up until the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello, it was primarily the factory riders Bezzecchi and Martin who caused a sensation; in the last four Grands Prix, however, it was the Trackhouse riders Ogura and Fernandez who were responsible for the top results.

A glance at the World Championship standings at the halfway point of the season highlights the strength of the Noale-based manufacturer: in the riders’ standings, the Aprilia riders occupy positions 1, 2, 4 and 6. Aprilia Racing leads the teams’ standings ahead of Trackhouse. Aprilia is also currently number one in the manufacturers’ standings.

One rider who spent two years riding for Aprilia in MotoGP is Miguel Oliveira. In 2023, the Portuguese rider was with the RNF team, and in 2024 he joined its successor, Trackhouse. After a year with Pramac Yamaha, the 31-year-old moved to the World Superbike Championship in 2026, where he is under contract with BMW.

Is Oliveira surprised by Aprilia’s successes this MotoGP season? “Not at all. They already had a pretty competitive bike back in 2024; there were just a few things missing. I think Fabiano Sterlacchini was the missing piece of the jigsaw,” said Oliveira in an exclusive interview with SPEEDWEEK.com. Sterlacchini joined the Aprilia MotoGP project as Technical Director in the 2025 season. “But it’s not just Fabiano, because there’s always a team effort behind it. And we mustn’t forget the work done before he arrived, with the previous engineer, Romano Albesiano. But when Fabiano joined, with his experience from KTM, he put a number of issues in the right place. The bike is very competitive. But also the people, the technicians currently working on the bike… the team is a united whole.”

Fabiano Sterlacchini

Foto: Gold & Goose

Oliveira and Sterlacchini: Their time together at KTM

Sterlacchini has built a formidable team around him. Oliveira rode for KTM for four years, from 2019 to 2022. It was during this time that he got to know the Italian engineer. “Fabiano is brilliant. I worked with him at KTM. He’s a genius, very intelligent. I really enjoyed working with him.”

Despite all the praise for Sterlacchini, Miguel Oliveira is well aware that many factors have to come together to be successful in MotoGP. “One person can be the key, but everything around him has to work well too,” emphasised the five-time MotoGP winner. “It’s complex. It’s about managing the team as a whole, but you also have to cater to every single person in every area. It’s not easy.”

Miguel Oliveira im Gespräch mit SPEEDWEEK.com-Redakteur Stephan Moosbrugger

Foto: Gold & Goose