Aleix Espargaró was on track this morning with some new features on his RS-GP, but he didn’t talk much about the bike’s updates. As for Miguel Oliveira, who tested the 2023 bike, he was pleased to see the opportunity that Aprilia gave to the Portuguese rider, considering that idea very ‘smart’.
Before talking about the Portuguese rider, A. Espargaró briefly spoke about the test, saying: ‘I tested a new chassis and some updates in terms of electronics. It was a first test and we need to gather more data to continue working for Valencia. We didn’t test the carbon chassis. It’s another one that is a bit lighter and a bit ‘softer’ in terms of what we feel. It’s not better or worse, it’s just different and we need to do more laps and test it on another track as well. We didn’t test it for starts or the engine’.
And explained a moment he considered ‘scary’, where he projected himself out of the bike to avoid getting hurt: ‘The new chassis is softer and I lost the rear at turn 13. It was very scary and I went straight to the wall and at the last moment I had to jump off the bike. It wasn’t really a crash, I went very wide and was going very fast and to avoid the wall I jumped off the bike’.
It was then followed by a comment on Aprilia’s stance in providing the latest bike to the Portuguese rider, from the CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team:
– No, I didn’t talk to Miguel about the bike he tested. I know he started with the 2022 specification and set his best lap, then he went out with the 2023 one and I think he felt a greater stability, which is actually one of the smallest differences [that the rider can feel], because between the 2022 and 2023 bikes there is not a big difference. It’s good to have his point of view. The track is strange and with a strange layout, but it’s good what Aprilia decided to do and it’s a smart move to give him the 2023 bike, but to have more data and understand things better. Unfortunately he cannot use it due to the rules until the end of the year.
And he concluded: ‘If it were up to me, I would give both riders [Oliveira and Raúl Fernández from RNF] the 2023 bike 100%, but it’s not that easy of course’.
