The growth of Aprilia in MotoGP in recent years has been evident, making it a contender to fight for podiums. Is 2024 the year it enters the title fight against a Ducati that has been one step ahead of its rivals? Maverick Viñales is confident.
The rider from the Noale manufacturer argued that if they continue on the current path, the season will be very positive: ‘What I feel is that if we follow the right steps, I would say yes. If we follow the line we are following, we don’t move away from this path where we are now, I think yes – we will be very strong in the middle of the season until the end. So I’m really encouraging the guys to keep working like that. It’s not easy, because we are working at 100% every day, so it’s not easy to keep this level. But I encourage them to keep working like that because I think we can do something amazing’.
According to Viñales, there was already a change last year, facing the new season with even more experience: ‘Especially, I don’t know if you remember, but in the last races [of 2023] I mentioned that we’ve found a good balance. In the first part of the season we were in the wrong side of the balance. Now, with this tool that we have, it’s kind of easy to follow this way because we always know where the bike is on the middle of the corner and what the bike is doing. So basically I know very well now. This will be my third full year with Aprilia, so now I know the bike very well, so I know when it has a good balance or not’.