Ai Ogura’s intriguing admission about leaving Honda to claim MotoGP place

On the Thursday before the Austrian MotoGP, Ai Ogura was announced as a Trackhouse Aprilia rider for the 2025 season, confirming the Japanese star will leave the Honda stable at the end of this season.

Ogura, who currently races for the MT Helmets MSI team in the Moto2 class, expressed his happiness at making the step up to the premier class next year in the pre-event press conference in Austria.

“It’s a really special feeling,” he said. “I’m really happy that finally I make this step [to MotoGP]. MotoGP is the maximum you can have, there is no more, so I’m really happy to make the last step and now I just can’t wait to see what I can do there.”

The Aprilia has proven itself to be one of the three most competitive motorcycles in MotoGP over the last two-and-a-half seasons, and the Trackhouse team has achieved good results in its first year, most notably Miguel Oliveira’s Sprint podium in Germany. 

Ogura remained reserved when asked about how he might fare in MotoGP in the Trackhouse team.

“About MotoGP, I don’t really know about the things I don’t know,” he said. “But it looks like the team and the bike is really competitive. I think I’m in the correct place for next year.”

As well as becoming something of a rarity in being a Japanese rider to race in MotoGP for a non-Japanese manufacturer, Ogura will also become the first rider to reach MotoGP having gone through the Asia Talent Cup (ATC), the original version of Dorna’s Talent Cups, when he makes his debut next year.

“It’s just unbelievable,” Ogura said. “It all started from the Asia Talent Cup, and still I’m working with some guys from the Asia Talent Cup and I just can’t thank everybody enough that was in this project. I’m really happy to become a MotoGP rider after competing in these Cup races.”

Ogura’s path to MotoGP, beginning on the Road to MotoGP in the ATC, means he has had explicit links with Honda throughout his journey. It was with the Asia Talent Team that he made the switch over to the Moto3 Junior World Championship (now JuniorGP) in 2016, then with Honda Team Asia that he spent his entire Grand Prix career up until this year when he switched to the aforementioned MT Helmets MSI team. 

Even now, though, he carries the HRC logo on the left shoulder of his leathers.

Asked how it feels to join MotoGP outside of Honda, having grown up within the structure of the Tokyo brand, Ogura said: “About this, I’m not really happy, of course. 

"If I can make a MotoGP step with Honda, of course it’s the best. But, at the same time, I have to think about my future and the situation, so that’s my decision.”

The 23-year-old was then asked whether his decision, then, was down to the performance of the Honda RC213V — which hasn’t scored a top 10 finish in 2024 — compared to the Aprilia RS-GP. His answer was simple: “Yes.”