The growth of Aprilia in MotoGP in recent years has been evident, now being a candidate to fight for podiums. Is 2024 the year they enter the title fight, against a Ducati that has been one step ahead of rivals? Maverick Viñales is confident.
The rider from the Noale manufacturer argued that, by continuing 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 continue on the trajectory we are following, not deviating from this path we are on now, I believe yes – we will be very strong from the middle of the season to the end. So I am really encouraging the staff to keep working like this. It’s not easy, because we are working at 100 percent every day, it’s not easy to maintain this level. But I encourage them to keep working like this because I think we can do something incredible‘.
According to Viñales, there was already a change last year, facing the new season now with more experience: ‘Especially, I don’t know if you remember, but in the last races [of 2023] I said we had found a good balance. In the first part of the season we were on the wrong side of the balance. Now, with this tool we have, it’s easy to follow this path because we always know where the bike is in the middle of the corner and what the bike is doing. So basically now I know it very well. This will be my third full year with Aprilia, so now I know the bike very well, and I know when it has a good balance or not‘.
