Why Oliveira was right to pass on 2020 works KTM ride

In Sunday's Styrian Grand Prix - the second race to be held at the Red Bull Ring this season and the 900th premier class contest - Tech3 rider Miguel Oliveira carried on KTM's banner year with its second victory in the space of three weeks, while making history for Tech3 and Portugal by taking the first win for both in MotoGP. It was a momentous day for Herve Poncharal's plucky squad, stalwarts of 30 years in grand prix racing.

Founded in 1990, the French outfit began life in the 250cc class and took French rider Olivier Jacque to the 2000 intermediate class crown. It stepped up to the premier class the following season with Yamaha support, which it retained in MotoGP through to the end of the 2018 season. In that time, it tallied up 30 podiums courtesy of the likes of Cal Crutchlow, Johann Zarco, Andrea Dovizioso and Ben Spies.

Bringing its 20-year grand prix partnership with Yamaha to an end to link up with KTM for 2019 on the promise of being a proper factory-supported operation, the podium became something that disappeared into the distance for Tech3, last year's largely difficult RC16 yielded a grand total of one top 10 finish as it slumped from sixth to 10th in the teams standings - ahead only of Avintia.

But there were flashes of potential being shown by one of KTM's star young riders in Oliveira. Beginning his association with the Austrian marque in his Red Bull Rookies Cup days, Oliveira missed the Moto3 crown in 2015 by just six points. Having been 110 adrift of eventual champion Danny Kent with six rounds to go, he found form with a superb run in which he finished no lower than second and won four times.

After stepping up to Moto2 on a Leopard Racing Kalex in 2016, Oliveira won KTM's first races in Moto2 in its first season in the class the following year and came close to the title in 2018, missing out to Francesco Bagnaia by nine points.

He then became the first KTM rider to ascend fully from Rookies Cup to MotoGP when he graduated to Tech3 last year, managing a best of eighth in the Austrian Grand Prix although a collision with outgoing KTM rider Zarco at the British GP curtailed the back end of his campaign with a shoulder injury.

With Zarco quitting his two-year KTM deal after the 2019 Austrian GP, Oliveira was KTM's first choice to join Pol Espargaro at the factory squad. But he declined the offer in favour of remaining with Tech3, prompting KTM to pull Brad Binder out of his planned 2020 Tech3 seat. The move irked Oliveira, who claimed he had been led to believe test rider Mika Kallio would be getting the ride.

"We knew deep inside by sharing the data with all the other three KTM guys and by seeing how he was riding that [a first win] was a possibility" Herve Poncharal

On the face of it, Oliveira's decision not to accept a full factory seat suggested he wasn't backing himself enough and added to a perception of the 25-year-old which Tech3 team boss Poncharal reckons most outsiders had of his rider.

"He's a cool guy, he's a polite guy, he's a clever guy, he has a good education," Poncharal tells Autosport. "Some people think to be a top rider you need to be wild, you need to be sometimes not really polite, not really well educated. And then the perception of Miguel as a person, maybe some people thought 'OK, this guy's never going to be a MotoGP winner'."

Oliveira proved them wrong in emphatic fashion last weekend, but it didn't come as much surprise to Poncharal (below, left).

"We knew deep inside by sharing the data with all the other three KTM guys and by seeing how he was riding that it was a possibility," he added. "And therefore, I'm very glad to have given Miguel the possibility to show he is a MotoGP rider and to do it with him before he moves to the factory team next year [to replace Honda-bound Pol Espargaro] makes me really, really happy. We've done it together."

Poncharal is one of the MotoGP paddock's most popular figures, something he's largely achieved by his down-to-earth approach to life (he told this writer he finds being called president of the International Race Teams' Association - a role he has held for almost two decades - "too much" for him). Poncharal notes that Oliveira is exactly the same way, making him a "perfect fit" for Tech3.

It's here where you begin to see why Oliveira elected against the step up to the works KTM squad. If motorcycle racing has a mad scientist figure - in the nicest possible way - that person is probably renowned engineer and co-founding member of Tech3 Guy Coulon (below right). He is also Oliveira's crew chief.

With such vast technical know-how around him working to get to grips with a bike that - as Zarco's woes showed - was in 2019 still difficult, stepping up to the works team at the time seemed like a major risk for a rider still finding his feet in the premier class.

"A fast rider is a happy rider", as Poncharal notes, but he was nevertheless "pleasantly surprised" by Oliveira's decision to remain with the Tech3 family.

"I thought he was going to say yes," Poncharal admits. "I wouldn't have been angry with him because when Brad was offered, he went - when you're a top rider, you want to be in the factory team.

"I wouldn't have been angry, but I was really surprised, pleasantly surprised. He told me, 'I feel good, as long as I can have the same technical support, there is no reason for me to be there. I like my team, I like my guys and I think they are the best guys around me for me to carry on learning MotoGP and performing in MotoGP'.

"That was a great feeling and I have been working twice as hard because I didn't want him at any moment to regret his choice. Also, you can imagine when the team understood that they were even twice more motivated to work and help Miguel, because they knew he decided to stay and that was a real important thing for them."

Of course, KTM took a huge step forward over the winter, and it would have been easy to question Oliveira's decision when Binder stormed to the marque's first victory at Brno in just his third MotoGP race.

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But Oliveira hadn't had luck on his side in 2020. Matching his career-best eighth in the Spanish GP set a positive tone, but he was wiped out by Binder at Turn 1 for the Andalusian round, having qualified fifth. A crash in FP3 at Brno left him in Q1, a session he failed to progress from to leave him 13th on the grid. He recovered to sixth, but had podium pace. And in the Austrian GP, whilst running in the podium fight, he was involved in a controversial racing incident with Espargaro.

If he'd finished where he'd started in the second Jerez race and had successfully gotten past his KTM stablemate for fifth place in the first Red Bull Ring race, Oliveira would be third in the standings on 65 points instead of ninth on 43. In that eventuality, he'd be ahead of fourth-placed Binder in the championship.

So far in 2020, only KTM has been able to celebrate wins with two different riders. That's a combination of - as Poncharal puts it - KTM not being "scared to work", but also the talent it has on its motorcycles

Oliveira will finally make the step up to the works KTM squad alongside Binder in 2021 - the "dream" line-up Poncharal was supposed to have in 2020. MotoGP's factory line-ups in 2021 are a stacked card, with Marc Marquez and Espargaro at Honda, Fabio Quartararo and Maverick Vinales at Yamaha, Alex Rins and Joan Mir again at Suzuki. KTM, however, may have the best of the lot.

"I followed them in Moto3, I followed them in Moto2 and I was always telling [team boss] Aki [Ajo] 'you're a lucky guy Aki, because you have the dream team'," Poncharal enthuses. "And now to think that both of them will be reunited next year in the factory KTM team, I told the KTM guys 'you are so lucky because you have two incredibly fast riders, two incredibly nice people and with unbelievable potential'."

KTM's belief in its young rider programme must be applauded. Banking on Binder and Oliveira to lead its works line-up for 2021 posed a risk, especially given their inexperience in MotoGP and the then-questionable prospects of its package's competitiveness.

But so far in 2020, only KTM has been able to celebrate wins with two different riders. That's a combination of - as Poncharal puts it - KTM not being "scared to work", but also the talent it has on its motorcycles.

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Whatever success KTM gets next year with Oliveira, it must never be forgotten the role Poncharal and Tech3 played in his development as a top flight MotoGP rider. And in this wildly unpredictable 2020 campaign, perhaps Oliveira and Tech3 can enjoy a few more days together like last Sunday...