Why Trackhouse felt pressure from its NASCAR success ahead of first MotoGP win

Already an established force in NASCAR, Trackhouse finally broke through in Melbourne to claim its maiden MotoGP win

Trackhouse MotoGP boss Davide Brivio joked that it was “feeling pressure” from the American squad’s success in NASCAR after achieving a debut win at the Australian Grand Prix.

Raul Fernandez led the majority of the race at Phillip Island from fourth on the grid, taking Trackhouse’s satellite Aprilia RS-GP to victory lane by 1.4s.

It marked the first victory in MotoGP for the North Carolina-based squad, which entered the championship just last year after taking over the operations of the erstwhile RNF Racing team.

Reflecting on the achievement, Brivio said the result underscored Trackhouse’s growing ambition to regularly compete against the series’ leading factory teams.

"We didn't really start from scratch, to be honest, because that was the RNF team, of course [that we inherited]. With Trackhouse, the new management and an American company, we try to put our vision into the project,” he told MotoGP.com.

“We have great support from Trackhouse, from [team owner] Justin [Marks].

“The idea is to try to challenge, first of all, the other independent team [and then] challenge the factory team. These results also give us more motivation to [achieve] this target, to [reach] this ambition.”

Raul Fernandez, Trackhouse Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images

Trackhouse has already won six races in the Cup Series this year, with Ross Chastain in the Coca-Cola 600, and former Supercars star Shane van Gisbergen proving almost unbeatable on road courses on his step up to NASCAR’s top division.

Brivio joked that Trackhouse’s MotoGP squad was facing pressure to emulate the success of its NASCAR arm.

“I'm also happy we won, because we won (six) races in the NASCAR championship, we needed to do something also in the MotoGP,” he said in a light-hearted manner. “We felt the pressure, and here we are, we've done [it], so I'm very happy.”

Aprilia Racing boss Massimo Rivola expressed his delight at Trackhouse’s maiden MotoGP victory, saying he had anticipated such a moment ever since the Noale-based brand expanded to four bikes in 2023.

“I said from the beginning, the first year with Razlan [Razali’s RNF team], I'm looking forward to the day where our satellite team will beat us - and today is the day,” he told the media at Phillip Island.

“They all have the bike, the full official bikes. With Davide, we know each other since a lot [of time].

“We work quite closely and speak about riders in particular, and obviously speak about people.

“So it's a sort of double satisfaction for me to see Raul winning and obviously seeing that Aprilia was quite fast.”