He walked steadily through the paddock of Le Mans, after celebrating a new podium finish for Aleix Espargaró, the third in a row and the fourth of the year, Massimo Rivola, CEO of Aprilia Racing. AS asked him for a few minutes and he granted them to us, the Italian aware that more than talking about another career of his Captain We were going to do it about why his renewal does not arrive, something that he hopes will happen sooner or later…
“Il Capitano’ had a beautiful race with extreme difficulty, because having Fabio (quartaro) behind him for so many laps, and at home, with so many people cheering him on in the stands (110,003), It is not easy at all and cold blood is needed. If it is not his most beautiful race, it is one of the most beautiful and difficult that Aleix has done. You can only say bravo for him.” Rivola began by saying to this newspaper before asking if the title is possible.
With the third place for the Spaniard and fourth for Quartararo, the difference between the two is reduced to three points and now there are only four that the Frenchman takes from the Aprilia rider at the head of the general standings. Will they fight for the title until the end? Massimo throws balls out there: “We don’t look at the overall championship, but rather Sunday after Sunday of races. We will see the classification at the end of the year. The bike is competitive and Aleix is super competitive. We will see in the end where we will be. The important thing is to be consistent.”
And now yes, the million dollar question, with how well both parties are doing, how is it possible that there is still no renewal agreement between Aprilia and Aleix. Your answer: “You’re right, but we’ll get there. We must be attentive to all the steps we take, to do them fairly. We are a factory that looks at the budget and we don’t want to make mistakes from other years.” When telling him that Aleix breaks the budget with such good results, Rivola says: “It’s nice to break the budget for reasons like this and we run for this reason. And when commenting that from the outside it seems that they are condemned to understand each other, he concludes: “Of course we will. We will.”