The off-season will have been a source of many upheavals for Bradley Smith, after having, in 2019, competed in 4 Grands Prix on Aprilia in MotoGP (17th in Jerez), 1 in Moto2 on a Kalex for the Petronas Sprinta Racing team (retirement at Silverstone), and 6 in MotoE (2nd in the World Cup, with 4 podiums).
Test driver at Aprilia this year, his situation suddenly changed when the possible suspension of the holder Andrea Iannone offered him the place of permanent driver for at least the start of the season.
During last week's Misano tests, Brad and his teammate Aleix Espargaró were doing good tests with the new Aprilia.
“I feel like it was a good test. Going from test driver to racing driver, there is a change you have to make both mentally and physically, especially when it comes to pushing for a lap time” explained the Briton to his compatriot Simon Patterson of The-race.com.
“I was able to get to my time pretty quickly on the first day, and it took me a while to get over that wall. On the last day I was able to understand where the limit of the bike was, although unfortunately I found the limit in the fastest possible corner! »
“We're starting to find things that improve the feel and handling of the bike, but from the start of the project the basic tuning of the bike was already pretty good. When we launched it at Sepang and Qatar it was already there, but since then I have been working on making it my own instead of copying other drivers. »
Smith says the progress Aprilia is making is slowly but steadily becoming apparent. “We have knowledge now, and that's the most important thing when you start a new project. Maybe we don't have the ultimate speed right now, but we know what helps me and helps the bike, and in a tight weekend where you don't have time to try a lot of things , we have an advantage. »
“Our pyramid is getting bigger and bigger, and I can't wait to start the season with everyone together on the grid. We know what Aleix, Pol [Espargaró] and [Miguel] Oliveira did and this is the top 10 zone.
“There's still half a second to find if we want to be there, but it's up to me to find it and it's already better than the 1,2 seconds we had at Sepang. The gap is narrowing, but it's still there, so [there's] still work to do. »
The team's technical director, Romano Albesiano, echoed Smith's praise for the new bike and the hard work done by him, Aleix Espargaró and test rider Lorenzo Savadori, and said that the he team entered the season better prepared than ever. “These are important tests to define the starting point of our championship,” Albesiano said. “We evaluated the different solutions in terms of chassis, engine and electronics, in addition to integrating a team that is brand new in many respects. »
“The drivers also needed this test to get back into rhythm after such a long stop, and I have to say that I saw them improve day after day. The decisions for Jerez have been made. »
“A lot of the new features we had prepared worked well and I am quite happy with the overall level of the bike. In any case, there is still a lot of work to be done on the details, particularly to increase overall reliability. »
“We say it every year, but it's not a mistake: the level of the championship has increased again and that pushes us to make an even greater effort. »
Photos © Aprilia, Motogp.com / Dorna
