APRILIA ‘Our bike isn’t so far from perfection’
2023 GP wins: two
2023 Constructors championship position: Third
Aprilia’s chief engineer Romano v believes the RS-GP is close to being a title challenger, after winning two GPs in 2023.
“Last season the bike was competitive at almost all tracks,” says Albesiano. “Whereas in 2022 we had some tracks, like black holes, where we were clearly not competitive. Last season we went to those same tracks and were absolutely competitive.
“This is a process that we started in 2021 [the second year of Aprilia’s game-changing 90-degree RS-GP V4], so we are covering the map more and more.”
The RS-GP has always been good at flowing circuits, but less so at stopand-go circuits. Albesiano says his engineers are fixing this issue.
“We were super-competitive at Spielberg [Red Bull Ring, where Maverick Viñales qualified second], which means we improved braking. So I think the task of closing the gap to the top is still in process.”
However, Aleix Espargaro and crew chief Antonio Jiminez believe that even better stopping performance is the main requirement for 2024.
“The positive of the 2023 bike was that the turning and stability improved, the negative was stopping performance,” says Espargaro. “The way the Ducati slows down is unbelievable. We cannot stop like that, even though we use bigger discs. I don’t know if Ducati stop using aero or what, but we need to improve.”
Jiminez agrees but is hopeful for 2024. “The braking issue could be many things – aero, electronics and a lot of other details,” he says. “Our engineers are working on this. Otherwise, I think our bike isn’t so far from perfection.”
Espargaro won Aprilia’s first premier-class GP in 2022 and only scored one more victory last season, dropping from fourth to sixth in the championship, while the perennially underachieving Viñales finished one place behind his teammate.
Albesiano believes bad luck hurt Aprilia in 2023. “For example, the injury Aleix suffered before the race in Mugello when a bicycle crashed damaged his right heel, which affected a few races. And then he got knocked off in the Qatar sprint.”
Last season was Aprilia’s first running a satellite team, making them MotoGP’s last factory to do so. But this important step forward was also compromised by injury, with Miguel Oliveira hurt for much of the season.
“We were quite behind in the process of running a satellite team, but the important thing is that we started it,” says Albesiano.
Extra feedback, information and data are important advantages of running four bikes instead of two, but Aprilia still have only half as many bikes as Ducati.
“Ducati have a great bike and a great number of bikes, which helps them a lot. Our bike is good – if we have issues, it’s a least 50% the way the bike is set up.”
Aprilia started testing a carbonfibre frame during 2023 and may race it in 2024. “The first advantage is weight, then you can define the stiffness in any way you like – it’s another planet! But it’s not a short-term project.”