Ai Ogura and the Power of Choices: Here's Why He Believes in Yamaha MotoGP

Having moved past the disappointment of a mechanical DNF in Austin just when the podium was within reach, Ai Ogura has returned to Japan. Between Tsukuba, Motegi, Okegawa, and the Nikko Circuit, he’s basically on a bike every day. He trains on his Honda CBRs, from the 250 to the 1000RR-R via the 600, while in 2027 he will very likely be dressed in Yamaha blue. Motorsport’s scoop has shaken up the rider market a bit and sparked debate, even though the 2024 Moto2 World Champion has never put a foot wrong in his career.

If you like, Ai Ogura is the rider who gets everyone to agree—even within his own contradictions. As an Arai ambassador he won a Moto2 world title with a team sponsored by rival MT Helmets. A Japanese rider currently competing with the American Trackhouse Racing team, he even wore a stars-and-stripes livery in Austin. So it shouldn’t be surprising if, as a product of the Honda academy, he’ll race with Yamaha Factory for the next two years.

We’re in a free market and there’s no notion of “betrayal” in that sense. Not even in the very conception of motorcycling in the Land of the Rising Sun, where for decades now there’s no longer been the so-called “holy alliance” among Japanese manufacturers to avoid poaching talent from each other’s academies. This was already the case in the 1980s, with famous examples in the more recent past.

In fact, Ai Ogura will become the first Japanese motorcyclist to race with the Yamaha Factory team (not satellite or “customer”) for an entire season since Norifumi Abe. He was poached by Yamaha from a Honda-supported team, namely BLUE FOX, after the start of 1994 and following the memorable Suzuka wild card. With the penalty paid to free Norick from his contract, the team then managed to complete the budget to finish the 1994 season. Ten years later came an arguably even more sensational case. On the verge of returning to Tech 3, Shinya Nakano decided during the 2003 Valencia weekend to sign with Kawasaki, ending a marriage with Yamaha that had lasted since childhood.

Prestigious precedents of riders raised in a Japanese manufacturer’s nursery who then moved, directly or indirectly, to the competition. Ai Ogura, brought up by Honda and financially supported through 2024, will wear blue, with one common thread to all his career choices so far: he hasn’t missed a single one. He turned down three Honda offers to step up to MotoGP, even preferring, on the last occasion, a satellite Aprilia. Just as in Moto2 he left Honda Team Asia and, able to choose any team, opted for MSi. On a Boscoscuro and not a KALEX—then went on to win the world title. The strength to choose, and the guts to embrace Yamaha’s project in these times. Not for everyone, but very much in Ai Ogura’s style.