After seven seasons in MotoGP, five-time Grand Prix winner and fan-favourite Portuguese rider Miguel Oliveira (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) is taking on a new challenge in the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship paddock. He has inked a deal with the team of the 2025 Riders’ Champion Toprak Razgatlioglu, hopping atop his capable M1000RR from which he will hope to spoil current title favourite Nicolo Bulega's (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) Riders’ Championship dreams.

OLIVEIRA’S ROAD TO GLORY: From a kid to Almada to a five-time Grand Prix winner

Oliveira’s career began in the Red Bull Rookies’ Cup back in 2008, winning two out of the three races he competed in, culminating in a move to the Spanish 125cc Championship for 2009 and 2010, taking a third place, then second place finish. His career took another step up in 2012 when he joined the Moto3 grid, earning two podiums and an eighth-place finish. His best season in Moto3 came in 2015, when in his first season with the Red Bull KTM Ajo team, he took nine podiums and six wins on his way to a second-place finish in the title just six points short of Danny Kent. That result punched his ticket into Moto2, where after a lukewarm first season with Leopard Racing in 2016, he reunited with the Red Bull KTM Ajo team in 2017 and 2018, finishing third, then second in the Championship and amassing six wins and 21 podiums across the pair of seasons. From there he climbed up again into the MotoGP paddock, riding four seasons on KTM machinery with which he won all of his five races in the premiere class, making him still the rider with the most wins on a KTM bike, a feat accomplished despite riding for a private team. After his maiden win at the Styrian GP having started in P7, Oliveira played the home hero at Portimao that same 2020 season, winning his home Grand Prix after starting from pole position. His final MotoGP win came at the Thai GP two seasons later in 2022, rallying from a P11 grid start to finish on the top step of the podium.

IN CAPABLE HANDS: Jumping atop the M1000RR, Oliveira will work to adapt to the 2024 and 2025 Championship-winning bike

The #88 now joins a red-hot BMW team, back-to-back Riders’ Champions, who maintain most of the continuity in their box aside from Razgatlioglu’s crew chief who has departed the team and will be replaced Australian Andrew Pitt as Oliveira’s crew chief. His arrival to the paddock marks the first time a Portuguese full-time rider appears on grid since Miguel Praia back in 2005. He will ride alongside Italian rider Danilo Petrucci, who both competed in MotoGP atop KTM bikes back in 2021,Their 2026 BMW M1000RR bike has seen improvements to the powertrain and adaptations to the aero package, however in their limited testing so far, Oliveira and his team have been mostly working on the bike’s balance and ergonomics to aid him in the adaptation from the MotoGP prototype style of bike. If he is able to adapt well and emerge at the top of the podium this season, he stands to become the second-ever Portuguese WorldSBK race winner and would be the first to do so since Alex Viera back in 1989.

On his debut season in the Championship, Oliveira said: “Everything is pretty new so it’s exciting to do things for the first time again! The bike is quite fun, and the team seems to be working well, and we’re getting to know each other more. I need to put myself in the best position possible to achieve the goals of the team, which is to be fighting for the top positions, that is the realistic target that we’ve set for ourselves. The way we want to be is sooner than later fighting for podiums, but I think it’s early, I’m still learning a lot of things. I need to be fighting at the top weekend in and weekend out to achieve such a goal.”

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