Good second place from Aleix Espargaró at the start of the Aragon GP. He has taken eight tenths from Maverick Viñales, his new partner in Aprilia, something that he does not give importance to at the moment because he knows that Mack will go to more.
-Can this be the weekend to fight for victory?
-Yes, why not? It is very difficult, to win many things have to be put together, but why not. We are doing things well, we are working well. I’ve been saying all season that everyone’s level is very similar, except for Fabio, who is one step above everyone else. Fabio has been saying for many days that this is not his favorite track and today he was not much superior to the rest. It has been competitive, but it has not been superior. Anything can happen and we had a good first day, so why not.
-Valuation of Maverick’s debut?
-I think it has been very competitive. For me it has not been far behind, it has been very competitive. He has lost two or three races, that from the beginning is always a handicap, because the level of the competition is very high and the moment you lose the train a bit, it is really difficult to be fast from the beginning. He has also changed his team, his engineers, his motorcycle … So it is really difficult to get on the bike and be fast after only two days of testing at Misano. It is not that I want to hang medals, but one thing is very clear: the Aprilia, to this day, is not the Yamaha, nor the Ducati, nor the Honda. It is a bike that works very well, we are doing things very well, especially Aprilia, and we are improving a lot. But it is not a winning bike so it will take some time to understand it and to know how to push it to the limit as much as I can to make it competitive.
-Has your presence in the box motivated or stimulated you?
-Yes, definitely. For me it is very important to have someone to compare yourself with and to have videos in which to see where to improve. Even today Maverick was already doing some things better than me, for example, changing direction from Turn 1 to 2, holding the gas and shifting from second to third a little better than me. So you can always learn from a driver as good as Maverick. Also in the box you feel the harmony, the illusion, the spark that the entire Aprilia box has for having two riders who they trust a lot and who believe they can do great things. You can see and breathe that in the box, and the truth is that we are in a very good moment in Aprilia.
-Maverick has said that the Aprilia is a very different motorcycle from the Yamaha. A few weeks ago you commented that you thought the Aprilia was the most similar bike to the Yamaha that you used (the Open 2014). Do you think it is true that the current Yamaha does not look so much like the current Aprilia or that perhaps Maverick is having a bit more trouble adapting to this bike?
-Maverick is more right than me in this for sure, because he just got off the Yamaha and just got on the Aprilia, so if anyone can compare both bikes it is him, not me. But I was referring to the engines. The configurations are very different, but it gave me the feeling that we have a good cornering, we have high stability with the new bike. The Ducati and the Honda drive quite differently from the Yamaha and the Aprilia. I do rounder curves, more cornering, but I understand that the bikes are different. It has also been a long time since I took that hybrid from Yamaha, but it could also happen that he got on the Ducati or the Honda and said “No, the Ducati and the Honda are really different.” It is difficult to make a judgment, but the most important thing is that the Yamaha is a motorcycle that is now leading in the championship with almost three races ahead, so something good must have and that is what I try to get out of Maverick all the time. , asking him a lot and understanding where we can improve. I repeat, the Aprilia is a good bike, no doubt, but it is not at the level of being a winning motorcycle, so everything we can learn from Yamaha will be positive.
-What have you learned from what Maverick has told you?
-In the end we have talked a lot. It is true that he needs a little more time to understand the Aprilia, so for now it is difficult to make an assessment. But he did tell us some things about the engine character, about cornering with the brakes … We talk a lot with Maverick and it’s interesting. It is very important to learn all that we can.