Aprilia has a competitive and fast motorcycle in MotoGP, and although it is not yet at the level of Ducati, it already allows to fight for podiums with some regularity. However, it still presents some reliability issues, as was the case in the Portuguese GP.
In the main race in Portimão, Maverick Viñales was in podium positions until the last laps, but always with gearbox problems that eventually led to his retirement. And last year, it was the satellite team that suffered from some bike breakdowns throughout the season.
Ramón Forcada was on the team in 2023 and, on the Dura la Vita podcast, issued a warning to Aprilia. The Spanish engineer emphasized that in order to attract riders, it is necessary to have good reliability rates and that breakdowns should be the exception:
– You can always have a mechanical incident, but it’s good when the mechanical incident is the exception. When it’s the norm, there’s something else going on. After all, with how the championship is, how important the points are and finishing all the races… which rider will want to go to Aprilia if they don’t improve reliability?
The former chief mechanic of riders like Casey Stoner and Jorge Lorenzo also commented: ‘When parts are damaged on the official bike, the problem is in the design. The mileage problem is easy to solve, you just have the factory make more parts in the factory and you do that. But if the problem is in the design, especially in the transmission… all riders fear a transmission breakdown‘.
