Marco Bezzecchi
Miguel Oliveira will begin a new adventure when he competes in the World Superbike championship in 2026.
The Portuguese rider’s MotoGP career has just come to an end after seven consecutive seasons in the premier class.
Unfortunately, he failed to finish higher than 15th in the standings over each of his last three seasons, and a move to Pramac for 2025 didn’t help much either.
It means that Oliveira has effectively been swapped with rookie Toprak Razgatlioglu for next year, taking the three-time champion’s BMW ride.
Oliveira is ‘at ease’ with Razgatlioglu replacing him, after admitting that suffering an unfortunate injury earlier in the campaign gave his team the chance to replace him.
Ex-teammate Jack Miller sent a heartfelt message to Oliveira after he announced what he’ll be doing in the future. Despite a tough year, they worked well together.
READ MORE: Miguel Oliveira shares whether he ‘regrets’ not replacing Marc Marquez at Honda after MotoGP exit
Miguel Oliveira won’t ‘close the door’ on a MotoGP return after Pramac departure
Yamaha’s choice to go with a 29-year-old rookie over an incredibly experienced 30-year-old speaks volumes about how much they believe in Razgatlioglu.
He has been linked with a switch for what feels like years, but after having so much success in superbikes, it feels like a good time for him to face a new challenge.
Where will Toprak Razgatlioglu finish in his first MotoGP season?
So what about the man he replaces? Oliveira is joining an excellent World Superbike outfit and is a contender for the title next season.
He’ll have to adapt his riding style to make sure that he’s quick there as well, but is there any chance of a MotoGP return? After all, he is quite young still.
“I definitely don’t close the door on returning here as a full rider on the grid, but for the moment, opportunity is not there for me here, so what I need to do is to focus on what I actually can do for next season. The future remains open,” he told Motorsport.com.
READ MORE: Neil Hodgson tells Toprak Razgatlioglu he’s signed for the ‘wrong manufacturer’ after joining Yamaha
What are some of the most impressive things that Miguel Oliveira achieved in MotoGP?
Looking back on his career, it feels slightly surprising that Oliveira’s best championship finish was just ninth place.
He won five races in a three-year span for KTM, but after leaving them, he really struggled to find the same level of pace.
2020 was his strongest campaign, while 2021 was peculiar. Halfway through the season, he had just scored four consecutive top-five finishes before failing to finish higher than 11th the rest of the way.
He has a winning pedigree and plenty of experience to go with it. If he isn’t a success in World Superbikes, it’ll be a surprise. If he performs really well, he could end up back in MotoGP one day.
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