The 2018 season started with a bang at Aprilia, at least in terms of communication. Although last in the World Championships by teams and brands (behind the rookie KTM) last year, Aprilia was counting on the help of its owner the Piaggio Group (turnover €1,295 billion in 2015) to make its comeback at the top level.
The 2018 RS-GP was shaping up to be a real missile, but 14th place, more than a second behind Aleix Espargaro at Sepang this winter, didn't bode well. The 14th place in Buriram at 0.9 was not triumphant, nor the 15th in Qatar at 1.2. But there was a good reason: the new engine had not arrived.
When he arrived for the Qatar GP, Aleix qualified 13th on the grid at 1.5 and Scott Redding 17th at 1.7. We realized in qualifying that this new engine was not pushing enough, then in the race that it was consuming too much.
Out of 21 drivers at the finish, Aleix Espargaro finished 19th, 34 seconds behind winner Andrea Dovizioso and Scott Redding 20th, 37 seconds. They finished more than 10 seconds behind rookie Tom Lüthi who was competing in the first MotoGP race of his life.
In its press release presenting the Argentine Grand Prix, Aprilia specifies that the circuit is full of treacheries (particularly in terms of grip) and that there is a risk of rain.
According to Alex Espargaro, who are " We must continue to work. In Qatar, the feeling in the race was quite good before the problem at the end which prevented us from finishing in the top-10 which was within our reach.
“I am confident because we have confirmed our strengths, especially over the race distance, while we have room to improve our fast lap in qualifying.
“We are at the start of the season. We have set ourselves ambitious goals which will certainly not be easy to confirm, but we have all our papers in order to have a good season. »
To Scott Redding, who are " The feeling after Qatar wasn't the best, but I'm sure we'll be able to resolve the problems that arose during the race.
“RS-GP has been working well up to this point, so apparently we missed something and that's what we're going to focus on in Argentina.
“With so many new components being introduced to the 2018 RS-GP, it becomes essential to carefully analyze the data and feedback from the bike in order to create a baseline that can then be improved upon as the weekend progresses. end advance. »
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Photos © Aprilia Racing Team Gresini
