The reasons that led Aprilia to start winning

The name Aprilia, the last factory in the MotoGP championship to reach the top of a podium, is associated with the race. He entered the World Championship in the mid -1980s via the 125cc and 250cc categories, almost always betting on Italian riders, Florentine Gramigni being his first 125cc champion. But it was in the 250cc, thanks to Max Biaggi’s talent, that they took off and gave way to Loris Capirossi, the emerging Valentino Rossi and had a continuation with Locatelli, Melandri and Poggiali, before starting to provide opportunities in emerging stars on the scene.Spanish like Álvaro Bautista, Jorge Lorenzo, Julito Simón or Nico Terol until the arrival of Moto3 and Moto2 they left the stage.

Behind the successes of the RS 125 and RS 250 is Luigi Dall’Igna, an engineer with tremendous experience, and he is also behind the two titles Max Biaggi won at WorldSBK using the RSV4 and signed by Ducati in 2015 if where it prolongs good work.

aprilia He decided to take the big leap and land in the 500cc premier class, the territory of Japanese factories for over a quarter of a century, between 1996 and 2000 with Dutch engineer Jan Witteveen as chief technical officer. with almost no any success. There was a new attempt with the advent of MotoGP (it was 4T and 990cc) which surely joined its Ducati neighbors as well. Aprilia’s project is ambitious, bet on a lightweight 3-cylinder prototype named RS Cube, but it also did not yield results and by the end of 2004 they had left the category. There was a timid return to the top category in 2013 under the acronym ART in the CRT subcategory, with Aleix Espargaró and Randy De Puniet, and in 2014 with Danilo Petrucci in the Open category.

It was only in 2015 that they decided to definitely focus all their efforts on MotoGP., the first of the keys to its removal. The new Aprilia was born under the guidance of Romano Albesiano, number 1 in the technical direction after the departure of Gigi Dall’Igna. They didn’t do it on their own team but from 2015 to 2021 Italian manager Fausto Gresini channeled the official return of the Noale factory to the elite of the motorcycling world. Álvaro Bautista and Stefan Bradl provided an alternative to Aleix Espargaró in 2017, who was just a teammate for Suzuki on Hamamatsu’s return to the MotoGP World Championship.

The agonistic capacity of the man from Granollers and his hyperactivity when rolling up his sleeves and going into work is another key. He was a pilot with strong character, leading by example, and unlimited leadership and enthusiasm. One of the sticks that occurred in the first RS-GP prototypes has yet to be written. And in 2019 found the best ally in the figure of a former F1 (Minardi, Toro Rosso and Ferrari on his resume) Massimo Rivola, signed as CEO of Aprilia Racing, another key to putting Aprilia in order and making Aprilia a professional team and also allow engineer Romano Albesiano to set aside sports activities and focus on managing the technical department.

In 2021 the first signs of success were already seen when Aleix Espargaró climbed the podium at Silverstone with a revolutionary evolution of the RS-GP, with a radical change in fairing, the inclusion of the holeshot, although they were still fails to squeeze the majority. from Aprilia’s V4 engine, but they’re no longer reliable. They are more serious about having a test team -the key to KTM’s success with having a second team- and Aleix manages to ‘attract’ one of the great talents on the grid, Maverick Viñales, with whom they have worked well at Suzuki and are in the coupling phase.

By 2022, Aprilia Racing has established itself on its own team and it has further united the team of people from the paddock that is from the Noale factory. Aleix Espargaro is living in his best stage as a pilot and the the motorcycle takes a new ‘step’ with a chassis adjustment and a noticeable improvement in engine performance seen on the straight side in Argentina when Aleix removed the stickers on Martín’s Ducati. Being an attractive bike to have its satellite team and top riders should be the next step.

They hold concessions

So far, Aprilia is still keeping concessions for 2022 because Aleix’s win in Argentina gave them three points and dragged them one point from Aleix’s third last year at Silverstone. They still have two (two points give the second and one point the third) of margin before they lose. It will affect them that they will have the same number of machines as the others and the unlimited trials will end, but they are clearly starting to reach the necessary maturity to be another of the greats in MotoGP.