Marco Bezzecchi
Few MotoGP riders improved over the course of the 2025 season as much as Trackhouse’s Raul Fernandez. Fernandez didn’t manage a single top-10 finish in the first five rounds, a period where he was outshone by rookie Ai Ogura.
That sequence also included four Q1 exits for the Spaniard. Indeed, by the time Ogura picked up an injury at the British GP, he had nearly triple the points of his teammate (43 vs 15).
Neil Hodgson said at the time that Ogura was ‘destroying’ Fernandez, who had made a ‘miserable’ start to the year.
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But as the summer arrived, the 25-year-old started to post consistently solid results. He was already on the fringes of the top 10 in the championship when he scored successive Sprint podiums in Indonesia and Australia.
Fernandez then claimed his first premier-class victory at Phillip Island and fought for top spot again at the season finale in Valencia before losing out to Aprilia factory rider Marco Bezzecchi.
Raul Fernandez has previously had confrontations with his teammates
Fernandez did indeed crack the top 10, the best showing of his MotoGP career so far. Speaking on The Race MotoGP podcast after Australia, journalist Simon Patterson highlighted his personal development.
Fernandez, who’s now working with a sports psychologist, apparently used to get into ‘physical fights’ with teammates. Both he and his brother, Moto3 rider Adrian, have now cut that out.
“They’re both a little bit more serious now than they were not that long ago,” Patterson explained. “They’re certainly no longer starting physical fights in the paddock with teammates, which is a trend that both of them have been, on occasion, guilty of.
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“Beyond that, I don’t think there’s been a huge change in the people around Raul, apart from the fact that he’s talked at length and quite openly about hiring a sports psychologist and how that has helped him.”
In one memorable incident during the 2022 season at Tech3, Fernandez was seen arguing with Tech3 teammate Remy Gardner in the garage after a run-in during qualifying.
Raul Fernandez nearly retired from MotoGP in 2025
MotoGP expert Peter Bom said Fernandez didn’t deserve another year in MotoGP after he made contact with Honda’s Luca Marini in Indonesia. He immediately silenced the criticism with his superb Australia win.
This wasn’t just a fringe viewpoint. Despite his age, Fernandez even considered retiring midway through the season because he was no longer enjoying racing. In that sense, he rescued his own career by finding form on the RS-GP25.
While a factory deal for 2027 looks unlikely – Aprilia are targeting Fabio Quartararo and are expected to renew Marco Bezzecchi – one imagines that Trackhouse will be keen to tie down the former Moto2 runner-up.
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