Written by Isha Reshmi Mohan, Edited by Dhara Dave
As one of the three rookies in the 2025 season and with a Moto 2 championship to his name, Ai Ogura joined the Trackhouse MotoGP team to race alongside Raúl Fernández.
Making him the first Asia Talent Cup graduate to make it to the premier class with Somkiat Chantra who is currently racing for the Honda LCR team.
He delivered a statement performance in the season opener in Thailand, earning praise from senior riders, especially Franco Morbidelli at the end of the Saturday session in Round one at Buriram.
Pre-season
During the rollout of the new liveries, the Trackhouse MotoGP team was the first to showcase its colours for the season. Additionally, we heard Ogura's first words ahead of the new campaign.
Before the launch in January, Ogura had only participated in the preseason test in Barcelona, held after the conclusion of the 2024 season. There, he experienced the new bike and tyres for the first time, having switched from Pirelli to Michelin.
He also shared that he was on the sim during the winter break and the test session in Barcelona definitely helped in giving him a more realistic feel of the bike before going in for the break.
When asked about his expectations for the eight days of pre-season testing scheduled in Sepang and Buriram ahead of the season opener, the Japanese rider humbly responded: "Nothing special, I just need to learn as much as I can about the bike."
He also stated that he doesn't have specific targets, such as being the best rookie by the end of the season or finishing in the top 10. Instead, he hopes to simply do his best in each round and take the results as they come.
During the pre-season tests, Ogura put in impressive lap times, showing that he had adapted well to the significant jump from Moto2. While he had the usual concerns about braking, he stated that maintaining race pace wasn’t an issue.
However, he found it more challenging to adapt to time attacks. By the end of the Buriram tests, though, his lap times were strong enough to suggest that he could qualify directly for Q2.
But the real test would come once the season began, where he would be racing alongside 21 other riders rather than in a controlled test environment.
Debut Race
During the sprint race, where he finished fourth, Ogura found himself right behind Pecco Bagnaia. He explained that he learned from the Italian rider by simply copying his movements during the race.
While other riders complained about the heat and tyre wearing out at Buriram, Ogura seemed to handle the heat a lot better even if his tyres didn’t, likely due to his experience in racing on Asian tracks in his younger years.
Some may argue that his strong performance in the first race was due to the monotonous nature since the extended testing session was on the same track and the grid had just two weeks before the season opener at Buriram Circuit.
Round 2 at Termas
Ogura once again proved his worth in Argentina. Despite qualifying 15th and holding that position in the sprint, he fought his way into the points in the main race, finishing eighth.
Unfortunately, just hours after the checkered flag, Ogura was handed a harsh disqualification due to a technical infringement - an unintentional use of non-homologated software.
Although the issue was not Ogura’s fault, and the team attempted to appeal the decision by arguing that the mishap provided no performance advantage, Trackhouse ultimately had to accept the ruling, as the error was technically “illegal.”
Statement from the team:
“A technical error led to the installation of the wrong ECU onto the #79 race bike used for the Grand Prix of Argentina which the stewards’ panel deemed as an infringement of the homologation rules after the race and therefore disqualified Ai from the results. It is accepted that the error gave no performance advantage to Ai on track as the electronic setting on the bike was correct but loaded with the incorrect firmware.
Ai's performance was flawless.”
As a result, Ogura lost his eight points. On the bright side, however, Raúl Fernández was promoted to 15th place, allowing him to score his first points of the season.
Despite leaving Termas with zero points, the team can remain confident in Ogura’s potential for strong performances. All eyes will be on him at the end of the month, at COTA, a circuit known for its challenging layout.
This marked the end of what could be the last race weekend at Termas for some time.
Don’t forget to catch the next MotoGP weekend at the Circuit of the Americas from 28th to 30th March at 18:00 GMT!
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