Since the early days of the Trackhouse Racing project to enter the MotoGP World Championship, back in November of 2023, Raul Fernandez has embraced the vision to form a new, dynamic and competitive American team at the pinnacle of global motorcycle racing. From the very first test, the 23 year old from Madrid, Spain, has pushed the limits of his Trackhouse Aprilia RS-GP23 and steadily gained speed, consistency and confidence – and has been a valued leader on his #25 side of the pit garage.
Bringing on young talent has been a hallmark of the Trackhouse approach from the beginning when Justin Marks opened Trackhouse Racing as an entry in the NASCAR Cup series in 2021. After just 3 years, Trackhouse has achieved 7 wins in the ivy league of stock car racing and has become increasingly competitive on two wheels with front-row qualifying performance and a Sprint race podium last time out at the German Grand Prix.
As one of the standout young talents in the MotoGP World Championship, Raul joined the premier class in 2022, having been a very close 2nd place in the intermediate Moto2 championship in 2021 – scoring eight wins along the way and in the eyes of many, the class act of the year. His MotoGP career to date has seen Raul steadily gaining confidence and in 2024, his true potential has become clear with a solid, competitive, environment around him in the Trackhouse garage and the experience of Team Principal, Davide Brivio, helping to guide his approach to racing.
Trackhouse has chosen to continue working with Raul, aiming to help him grow his career and the performance of the team for the future. Having shown his pace on the 2023 specification Aprilia, Raul will graduate onto the latest spec RS-GP24 at the next round – Silverstone, for the British Grand Prix and all at Trackhouse are excited about his prospects for the rest of this season and the next two years to come. Go Raul – Vamos!
RAUL FERNANDEZ
“I’m super happy to remain with Trackhouse Racing MotoGP. That’s all we wanted; this new project, with Justin and Davide, is great and they have built a very good team. I am delighted to hear their plans for the future as they have a clear idea of what they want to do and for me, from the beginning of the year, it was my priority to try to stay in the team. At the end, I get to be here for the next two years which leaves me very satisfied but, of course, this also means we have a lot of work to do. We will have the full factory material in 2025 and 2026, obviously great news and right now, we are gearing up to start with a new bike in the middle of this year, so we have to make good use of this to prepare for next year as well. We need to stay calm, understand everything about the bike and see what we have to do for the 2025 season – it is very important. Trackhouse Racing MotoGP is just an amazing team, I love the ideas of this American organization and I’m also happy to see Justin’s ambitions. He is new to MotoGP but ready to bring something different in here for the American market and I hope we can make a difference – trying to make MotoGP grow there. Also, with Davide I’m very happy. He won five titles in MotoGP so far and I think he’s the right person to help me to fulfill my dreams. I strongly believe in him and his abilities to create a great team, I’m just over the moon. Now, in Silverstone, we will receive the 2024 upgrade specification of the Aprilia, which is going to be exciting. The first part of this year has already gone well, especially the last four rounds, as we managed to make some big steps and took the maximum from the bike. I feel that we are on the limit at the moment, so it’s great to jump to the new Aprilia now. We will have the same material, like the factory riders and Miguel, so it will be interesting to find out about our level inside the championship, especially on the Aprilia side.”
DAVIDE BRIVIO – TEAM PRINCIPAL
“We are happy to secure Raul in our rider line-up for the next two years. Having seen him at work in the last few months, we have appreciated his talent and I feel that he has been changing his approach to racing and that he is willing to work, willing to put in the effort to improve, to solve problems and this is always with a positive approach. This is something that we have appreciated and it will be very important to continue for our future, having already 3 year’s experience in MotoGP and knowing the latest 2024 spec Aprilia RS-GP from Silverstone to the end of the season – it will be the best way to prepare Raul for the coming two years. I think we have a lot in common; the way of thinking on this project and Raul is happy with his crew, he is happy about the team direction and so there are all the conditions we need to make our challenge stronger, help get Raul to be a stronger rider and keep pushing to make Trackhouse Racing a better MotoGP team.”
JUSTIN MARKS – TEAM OWNER
“I am thrilled that Raul will join Trackhouse for the future – he has shown the dedication and commitment necessary to excel at the MotoGP World Championship level. We’re a new organization and learning every day so having a young, hungry, rider like Raul will be tremendously beneficial as we continue to work with Aprilia building the team. Raul has tremendous speed and talent and we all know that, as his experience grows, he will be closer and closer to the top step of the podium.”
