Smith back in the mix
Briton Bradley Smith looks likely to prove the old cliché that one man’s loss is another man’s gain as he returns to MotoGP with Aprilia. The Italian team’s pre-season preparations were thrown into turmoil when team rider Andrea Iannone was provisionally suspended by the FIM in midDecember after the 30-year-old tested positive for an anabolic steroid at the Malaysian Grand Prix two months earlier.
When we went to press on Friday, Iannone’s future was still in limbo with no verdict yet reached on the case. But while Iannone remains barred from riding Aprilia’s radical new RS-GP machine, it means Smith gets the chance to resurrect his career alongside Aleix Espargaro, having lost a full-time ride with KTM at the end of 2018. Speaking during the recent floodlit Qatar test, it was clear Smith is still in the dark himself about the impact the Iannone situation will have on his 2020 plans.
He told MCN: “It would be a dream come true to be back racing fulltime. Those emotions are something you need to keep in check because there’s no reason to think that it’s going to happen and then be heartbroken and disappointed. I’m certainly not putting my hopes on it because we believe that things are looking more positive than negative for Andrea from what I hear from everybody. Patience is key, and as a team, the main objective is to have him (Iannone) back as a full-time rider. I am still a test rider until I am a full-time rider and that’s my mental process at the minute.”
Aprilia is clearly preparing for the worst-case scenario and recently signed former WSB rider and FIM Superstock 1000 champion Lorenzo Savadori as test rider, should Smith be required in a racing role. Smith added: “We have to have a Plan B. Aprilia are covering all bases. We don’t know what’s going to happen so we’re just making sure that we have Plan A, Plan B, Plan C lined up. Even if I do race in Qatar, I’m racing as a replacement.”