They were the big surprise of the season, however, they were deflating with the passing of the course. Aprilia has signed its best year in the MotoGP World Championship, but even with that, it knows little. Aleix Espargaró could have been third in the overall drivers’ classification, but a final puncture in Valencia threw everything away. And then the points lost in the Barcelona GP hurt more than ever. His nightmare came true. The worst day of his sports career arrived. He did not decide the championship by any means, but it left him without stepping on a step of the final podium that he touched throughout the year. He could have been avoided and now a fourth place is his best result in a season where he could have hung the bronze. Thus, the confusion with your brand is greater.
And there are things that are not understood. They have won their first race, they have been constant on the podium, but the Asian tour got the better of them. Aleix was on the podium in Aragon and since then they have not stepped on it again. No points in Japan and Valencia, eleventh in Thailand, ninth in Australia and tenth in Malaysia. A sequence of errors that they have not yet been able to understand. Which turns out to be the most worrying thing for its star pilot. “You have to understand what has happened to the Aprilia 2022 in this second half of the year, that we have not been able to”, remembers the one from Granollers, after the tests in Valencia at DAZN. Because one thing is clear: they do not want to lower the level they have achieved this course, but for that they must continue working. Maverick (Vinales) and I have scored 18 points in the last five races each, which is really very poor. So, first understand the performance drop of the last half of the year and, from here, look for more power”, he assumes as homework for the factory in this long winter.
But there is more confusion at the Noale factory. After having a hard time on the Asian tour and not being able to be fast throughout the Valencia GP, they reappeared in the tests almost without problems. Both Aprilias dominated in the morning and, at the end of the day, only the two Ducati of Mooney VR46 slipped between Viñales (2nd), Oliveira as a new signing of the brand (4th) and Espargaró (5th). The confusion grew. “We have gone fast and I don’t know why. I don’t know if it’s positive or negative. The bike had a lot grip, lots of traction. We have done many laps in 1.30 low. I didn’t use the soft tyre, just two medium ones, and even so, I did very fast laps. I don’t know, it’s hard to understand. It was a shame not to be able to finish on Sunday because it would have been a good race looking at today’s results.”
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nothing to prove
And with that, message for the Italian brand. Compared to the rest of the brands, Aprilia was the only one that did not bring “nothing new” to test in the first pre-season tests. A detail that did not leave ‘Il Capitano’ happy, who saw from his box how other teams did not stop bringing out new details for 2023. “I can’t be happy. Our rivals had a lot of news. We just had a slightly different swingarm, other than that, nothing I hadn’t tried before”, revealed the Catalan, annoyed at not having been able to take “any step forward”, although satisfied because the only new thing was “positive”. “He gives us a little more traction when you lift the bike up”, but he remembers him, “The rest of what we need, we will have to wait.”
“It’s not positive in any way (have nothing from 2023). The engineers obviously have work to prepare the 2023 prototype for Malaysia, but they don’t have any indication in terms of material. It is true that between Malaysia and Portugal there is a lot of time, almost a month to work, but we have lost a good window without news. This is how it is, it is what it is”, Aleix insists before the press, tightening the screws on his brand so that, he hopes, they can take a step forward in those areas where they waste more time. The main thing is acceleration at the bottom of the bike and “also at top speed”. “We are losing 10km/h with the Ducatis and it is a lot”, points out the Spaniard, who also pays special attention to the starts, recalling the “many doubts” generated by the new carbon clutch that was released in the middle of the year. There will be 44 starts in 2023 (for the sprints on Saturdays)Therefore, “it is one of the keys that we have to improve”. Aprilia has no time to lose.