Aprilia, in MotoGP, is the eternal wait. The brand does not stir up passions among its compatriots like Ducati does, even though it claims 54 world titles. It is also a member of the powerful European group Piaggio, but it appears to be the most limited investment in the paddock given that its RS-GP adventure has been based on the private structure Gresini since 2015. And, in the last two years, KTM, more young on the starting grid, grilled him on politeness. But since last year, the situation seems to be changing with the recruitment of former Ferrari F1 employees. One of them is even a boss like Massimo Rivola who takes stock of the present and the future…
The brand Aprilia seems to have all the cards in her deck, a history and skills that could make her a major player in MotoGP. And yet, the mayonnaise does not take. Fate even seems to take pleasure in attacking Noale's men. It is in fact from the release of a promising new RS GP that a pandemic has closed the world on itself while one of its major drivers, Andrea Iannone found himself suspended because of a doping affair…
The one who is in charge of sports, Massimo rivola, must therefore keep a cool head. Aware of the brand's potential, he is convinced that bad luck will pass and he is already looking ahead to 2022: “ Aprilia Racing must show that we are growing as a team and as a company in terms of performance » declares the former F1 driver. “ At the same time, we are running out of time to prepare our own factory deployment with our own infrastructure for 2022. This will take time. We need to build trucks, hire staff, build a reception facility and much more. But that's certainly our goal. Then at some point we will find someone to lead a customer team for Aprilia ».
A plan only simple in theory
On this roadmap, he details: “ having four bikes and four riders on the track helps improve performance. You can improve the stability of the motors, you get more data for Noale's engineers. That's why our goal is always clearly to first get two studs for the factory team and hire a customer team ».
A plan that seems simple, but is actually complicated because there are not many opportunities left to implement it. In fact, only structures Gresini et Avintia could play the role of support point for the future factory team Aprilia : " we would certainly be happy if we could continue working with Gresini as we have a long-standing relationship with him. But we have to prove to Gresini that we are competitive enough. So we can choose Gresini » comments one Rivola who is well aware that Fausto's troops may also be of interest Suzuki, also looking for a satellite team…
It would then remain Avintia. A stopgap? Perhaps, but also a political opportunity: “ perhaps we could integrate more of our Aprilia technical staff into Avintia. We are in a critical and difficult phase due to the Coronavirus crisis. Therefore, the customer team's issue cannot be evaluated at this time. However, we are aware that we cannot sleep. We must move forward »Assures Rivola which thus reveals his dilemma.
However, he ends on Speedweek. com with Günther Wiesinger: “ our goal is definitely to have four bikes on the field for the 2022 season. And we would sign a five-year contract ". One last mention which should reassure Dorna…
