Augusto Fernandez tipped for new MotoGP team - but not as a racer

Augusto Fernandez, the 2022 Moto2 World Champion and current GasGas Tech3 rider, could be set to join the Yamaha MotoGP ranks in 2025.

Were Fernandez to join Yamaha, as reported by Motorsport.com, it would be as part of its official MotoGP test team, rather than as one of the riders in its new Pramac satellite team.

In the past, such a move for Fernandez would mean Yamaha replacing Cal Crutchlow, but by now MotoGP test teams are increasingly becoming multi-rider setups. This is an evolution spearheaded by KTM, which currently has Dani Pedrosa, Pol Espargaro, and Jonas Folger employed as test riders.

In Yamaha’s case it would mean Fernandez joining the aforementioned Crutchlow, who has spent most of this year out of action with a wrist injury, and then with recovery complications resulting from the surgery performed to correct the original injury.

Honda, too, will be expanding to a two-rider MotoGP test team in 2025, as current Aprilia rider Aleix Espargaro joins Stefan Bradl in HRC’s setup.

Fernandez, who is only 26 and who won’t turn 27 until late-September, does not immediately stand out as a rider who fits into the test rider mould. A World Champion only two years ago, the Spanish rider is theoretically only now reaching his physical peak, compared to the likes of Crutchlow and Pedrosa who both raced into their 30s before retiring and becoming test riders.

However, Yamaha Sporting Director Massimo Meregalli told Motorsport.com that Fernandez is the type of rider they’re looking for.

“We want to strengthen the test team and sign a rider, but we don't think about a veteran or a retired rider, we want a young man who wants to do a lot of laps and we can make the most of the training that concessions allow us,” he said, while also confirming that Crutchlow will remain a part of the test team.

When Fernandez spoke to Crash.net on the Thursday before last weekend’s British Grand Prix, he said that “It’s not easy, but I want to finish all the opportunities that I can have here in MotoGP.”

WorldSBK is an option Fernandez is considering, saying “There’s a career there, people having fun and enjoying racing there which is what we’re looking for also. [...] If there is a good bike in Superbike I will take it.”

However, with only BMW, Ducati, and Kawasaki having won races in WorldSBK this year — BMW only with Toprak Razgatlioglu; Ducati with only its factory riders, Nicolo Bulega and Alvaro Bautista, as well as Nicholas Spinelli when he replaced Danilo Petrucci in Assen; and Kawasaki only with Alex Lowes and only at Phillip Island — the number of competitive Superbikes are limited, especially with BMW having already confirmed Razgatlioglu and Michael van der Mark in its factory team next year.

As a result, the Yamaha testing role becomes appealing to Fernandez, who told Motorsport.com that he is speaking to Yamaha about the role in case “nothing appears in [MotoGP] or in SBK.”

As well as keeping himself in the MotoGP paddock, riding Grand Prix bikes and working as part of a factory setup, the testing role would offer Fernandez the benefit of numerous wildcards (up to six depending on the fitness and willingness to race of Crutchlow), as well as the opportunity to replace one of the four Yamaha race riders (between the factory and Pramac teams) should they be injured, as Alex Rins was in Germany where he was replaced by Remy Gardner.