Aprilia’s performance this year has been… mixed. If on the one hand it often manages to show itself capable of being among the most competitive, at a glance and even during the same day or session it has clear oscillations in performance, with Miguel Oliveira addressing the issue and revealing in which areas he would like to see an improvement.
Asked about this lack of regularity in his preview of the Thai GP, the Portuguese rider replied: ‘Yes, it’s true. Why is that? I think if you look at the tracks, each track has different challenges. There are some tracks where the struggle is clearer, on others it’s not so much, but it’s true that we’d like to take a step forward in terms of performance’.
He went on to explain where he feels RS-GP needs to take a step forward in order to be closer to its rivals: ‘I think we need to take a step forward in terms of better braking and also by accelerating a little faster in the slow corners. That’s where I think we’ll have to find a compromise’.
There is, however, one area where he is very good, he said: ‘The bike corners very well but at the same time we lack something in those two areas, where the other guys perform a little better, but we’re talking about very, very small margins, and these days things are the way they are for everyone’.