Aprilia in MotoGP and the resources that the Noale manufacturer is putting into the development of its RS-GP is now a recurring subject in the Grand Prix paddock. And all the more so since it is the protagonists themselves who fuel the debate, starting with the pilots. Aleix Espargaró is even particularly insistent, which forced Romano Albesiano, now in charge of the technical part, to put himself on the front line to respond. Here is his position. And she's not that reassuring...
Aprilia is by far the last of the factory teams entered in MotoGP. In eleven races contested this season, she collected 54 points, while KTM collected 83 in the same period. Aleix Espargaró et Andrea Iannone placed 14th and 18th respectively in the Drivers' Championship, with their best result of the season being a ninth place in Argentina. Only on three occasions Aprilia reached the top 10.
I will espargaro and the last one to arrive Iannone have repeatedly stressed that this assessment is not the responsibility of the drivers and have often criticized the little progress made with RS-GP. The call for more investment has been strong. But the technical director, Romano Albesiano, recently stressed that the bleak situation was not due to a budget problem.
« Piaggio is a large company strong in its activity, and the financing of this project poses no problem, which I would like to clarify " said Albesian about the Italian parent company. “ If you ask an engineer if the budget is enough, they will always say it's not enough, but honestly, I think the budget we have now is what we are trying to achieve, namely to constantly be part of the top 10. Our budget is absolutely correct to achieve this objective ».
Albesian admits, however: “ when it comes to fighting for the top 5 or top 3, we will certainly have to take another step, but unfortunately the time is not ripe to discuss this ". For now, Aprilia therefore assumes a simple role of extra…
But for the next MotoGP season in 2020, the technical director ofAprilia promised profound changes to narrow the gap with the competition. We even talked about “ revolution » compared to the current state. I will espargaro have no doubt that Aprilia and Piaggio have the necessary resources to achieve this: I don’t know exactly our budget – neither that of Ducati nor that of Honda » declared the Spaniard. “ All I know is that Piaggio is a very large group of companies that have the same capital, if not more, than our competitors. You have to decide what you want to do next year and I think we're big enough to have what we want ". It's all about knowing what you really want...
