Miguel Oliveira’s first Superbike podium couldn’t have come at a better place than the Algarve Circuit in Portimão. It was right in front of his home crowd, in fact, that the Portuguese rider tasted the joy of bringing the BMW M 1000 RR into the top three for the first time, finishing the weekend’s first race behind the Ducatis of Nicolò Bulega and Iker Lecuona. That third-place finish came thanks to a crash by Yari Montella in the early laps of Race 1, which opened the door for Miguel to a special podium finish—one he had already hoped to achieve yesterday.
“It's been a long time since I was on the podium, and doing it in front of the Portuguese fans is definitely special,” Oliveira said, before talking about the emotions he felt seeing all his fans. “It’s really nice, even if it’s a bit too much in the paddock, because I can’t go to lunch and come back: I have to time things just right so I don’t have to stop and take too many photos,” he said with a laugh. “But it’s fantastic to see all the people here, and this result is partly for them too, to reward them after the long seasons when they couldn’t see me here.”
A sea of fans for the local hero, who’s been used to feeling the crowd’s warmth since his MotoGP days.
“I have to say that in terms of people asking for photos or autographs, there isn’t a big difference between MotoGP and here, because even in MotoGP there are a lot of people in the paddock,” he noted. “The fact that the podium is in the paddock, though, is special, because I’m right there. I imagine that if I were a fan, it would be fantastic to see a rider so close to me. I can only imagine how they feel.”
After becoming the first Portuguese winner of a MotoGP race in Portugal, today’s third-place finish made the BMW rider the first Portuguese rider to stand on the podium since 1989.
“How does it feel? Well, I don’t know, I’m not really a stats guy and I tend not to pay too much attention to these things because I think it’s nice to just be myself,” he replied. “The fact is, I’m a Portuguese rider and there aren’t many of us around. So, as far as I’m concerned, it’s just something special.”
Although it took him only two races to secure his first Superbike podium— and BMW’s first since the departure of champion Toprak Razgatlioglu— Oliveira believes he doesn’t need to recalibrate his goals for the season.
“First of all, I want to say that I didn’t come here as a replacement for anyone or to follow the results or footsteps of the rider who occupied this seat before me: I am myself, I have a unique career that’s very different from that of the rider who came before me. However, I feel perfectly in tune, because I felt it would be possible to finish in the top five and, in the best-case scenario, fight for the podium, and that’s exactly what happened today, both in qualifying and in the race, ” he underlined. “I benefited from a small crash by Montella and made it onto the podium. The pace was definitely there, and even though we’re not all on the podium because there are only three spots, I think it would have been a pretty close race. I also learned a few things for tomorrow, and I don’t think I need to recalibrate anything for the rest of the season. I still have a difficult task ahead of me with three new circuits, and that’s enough.”
Today’s result, however, represents a step forward in Miguel’s adaptation to his new environment.
“I definitely think it’s a step forward, because I know I’m at my home Grand Prix and that home GPs are special, but in the morning I proved I was fast, in the afternoon I showed I had the pace, and I think this highlights a real step forward in the right direction,” he said. “We were certainly missing something to fight for the win, but I don’t know if it was realistic for me to expect that in the second round. We’ll start from here and see where we end up.”
Although he doesn’t want to follow in Razgatliglu’s footsteps, in some braking zones the 31-year-old’s riding style is quite reminiscent of the Turkish rider’s. Is that how the BMW is meant to be ridden?
“This weekend someone asked me how much I’m adapting to the bike or how much the bike is adapting to me, and let’s just say that, coming from a different paddock and a different bike, I arrived here with a very open mind,” explained Oliveira. “I have no reference points with other bikes in this paddock, and that works in my favor because the team asked me to ride the bike in a certain way; I’m trying it, and it’s working. Ultimately, I want to adapt to the bike as best as I can and get it to a good level, and if we can then adapt the bike to some aspects of my riding style, we’ll work on that.”
The Portuguese rider then concluded by discussing how different BMW’s approach is compared to manufacturers like KTM, Aprilia, and Yamaha, with whom he worked in MotoGP: “It’s hard to say, because I’m coming off a period of about seven years where I moved from team to team in MotoGP and then came to Superbike. I can say that what they have in common is the professionalism and the way the team is structured, which has the same structure as a MotoGP team. They’re doing a fantastic job in this regard, and I’m convinced that, on their part, we definitely have the tools to succeed.”