Miguel Oliveira revealed that he was ‘not happy’ to be given the news that he would remain at the satellite Tech 3 KTM team for another year.
The spot alongside Pol Espargaro will go to current KTM Moto2 junior racer Brad Binder, who was due to make the step up to the premier class for 2020 with Tech 3 initially.
The remaining seat at the factory team was expected to go to either KTM test rider Mika Kallio or ‘17/18 rider Bradley Smith, but KTM decided instead to promote Binder straight into the berth-with Iker Lecuona filling his Tech 3 vacancy.
Oliveira has performed well in his maiden MotoGP season, securing a best finish of eighth at the Austrian GP and regularly out-pacing Johann Zarco before the Frenchman split with the Austrian manufacturer ahead of the Aragon event.
The Portuguese rider wasn’t overly thrilled with the news he would miss out on the factory seat however, although was looking forward to another year with the highly-rated Tech 3 squad.
“It’s a very recent situation came up, and obviously they need to make very fast decisions at a time of the year where the rider market is pretty much closed,” explained Oliveira.
“I’m OK with my team-mate I have nothing to say, in fact I had no participation in anything and I was not asked for any opinion on the subject and when I knew I said I wasn’t happy about not being promoted to the factory team, but in any case I accept the KTM decision and am fully committed to Tech 3 where I feel good.
“The logic should be that I move there (factory KTM team) soon, I was approached by KTM in Misano where they asked me if I thought it would be OK for Mika Kallio to be the factory rider for 2020 and the rest of this year, and I was completely fine with that.
“But when the situation changed I said I was not really worthy of this spot, but this is the way it goes and I always respect KTM and its decisions.”
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