Aprilia, the outcast team

Yes, the headline sounds unpleasant, but it is the way in which we want to emphasize the characteristic shared by the four drivers who Aprilia will put on track in 2023. Because there are so many Aleix Espargaro What Maverick VinalesWhat Miguel Oliveira Y Raul Fernandez they used to be looked at by the brands they ran from.

And to be clear, in the dictionary of Royal Spanish Academy ‘Wrong’ is explained as having someone or something less than they deserve. A definition that can be fully applied to the four drivers mentioned.

Aleix Espargaro was underappreciated when, after two seasons as a pilot suzuki, David Brivio dispensed here. Let’s remember that with the bike still in the development phase, Aleix set a pole position and started several times from the front row of the grid. But for the then manager of Suzuki, this was not enough and Aleix had to accept the offer that came to him aprilia, the ugly duckling of MotoGP back then. We are talking about 2017.

In the case of Maverick the story is cooler. The breakdown of a relationship that started in a spectacular way – three wins in the first five GGPP together – ended with an unpleasant break in the middle of last season. Viñales remained on foot and with the sanbenito of the opposing pilot. But the insistence of Aleix Espargaró with his bosses to sign Maverick, ended with the Catalan pilot in the range of the brand of Noel.

Miguel Oliveira For his part, he reaches Aprilia after he closes, with his own words, the book that connects him KTM since 2015. A relationship that broke down after the Austrian brand unilaterally removed him from the factory KTM team to return him to the satellite team where he rode in 2018 and 2019, despite being the KTM rider with the most victories in MotoGP.

Months later, he was offered a factory driver status within the new team structure. Gas Gasbut Oliveira has already made his decision: join the project Aprilia inside your satellite equipment.

Raul Fernandezwhich is the revelation of 2022 World Championship, Aprilia will come next season after a very disappointing 2021 where the logical expectations of a rookie when he arrives in MotoGP turned into a nightmare. Due to the lack of competitiveness of KTMbecause of episodes of manifest incompetence on the part of the team and because of a lack of empathy on the part of both.

With the presence of Viñales, the arrival of an experienced and victorious Oliveira and the presence of the pilot who broke the early records of himself Marc Marquez Aleix Espargaró will finally have riders by his side who will test his true level.

Racing memories are short and few remember that before Maverick Viñales arrived in the middle of last year, Aleix had five other Aprilia teammates: Sam Lowes, Scott Redding, Andrea Iannone, Bradley Smith and Lorenzo Savadori.

A cycle that left him with nothing to compare himself to and Aprilia had no more references in the RS-GP development project than Espargaro. As Aleix himself repeated: “The only rider I can compare myself to is myself. I want to know, I need to know, if the Aprilia is capable of going faster than my driving, me and the engineers”.

This is one of the reasons why Espargaró insisted on obtaining the services of Viñales when he was released. An opinion that is fortunately shared Roman Albesian Y Massimo Rivolatechnical director general manager of aprilia corserespectively.

Rivola’s arrival at Aprilia was key to changing the pace of the Italian factory’s MotoGP project. After coming to MotoGP in 2019 from F1, after a season observing and analyzing the operation of the World Championship and his own team, at the end of the same year he started the process that brought Aprilia to the level of popularity it enjoys . now.

Arrival of diverse engineers in Noale’s company

A process that started by strengthening the career department. He signed a series of engineers with origins as disparate as Ferrari, Lamborghini, Suzuki or Ducati. Logically, it took time to harmonize them, so that they all spoke the same language, figuratively speaking. One job is associated with Romano Albesiano throughout 2020.

The hours of this gearing process can be fully read in the evolution of Aprilia’s performance in MotoGP. Because once the language was unified in the Tower of Babel, which is Corsican cast in a few months, the steps forward of Aleix Espargarósand made it obvious. The Top10 became the usual zone, with some forays into the Top5.

I don’t know if the arrival of Viñales in mid-2022 had any influence on the specific move made this season. Aleix didn’t hesitate to admit that seeing his teammate’s telemetry glossed over some details that he had previously, without reference, missed. And in a MotoGP as tight as today, those “details” can be the difference between finishing between P10 and P5 and finishing between P5 and P1.

In any case, what has been said, the level of hopeless four that will have Aprilia in 2023, suggests a strong Aprilia with aspirations in all. Also, in this matter of career, having accounts with those who doubt you is always an additional motivation.