Raúl Fernández left the Barcelona test with reasons to be satisfied. The Trackhouse rider was the fifth fastest, 0.668s behind the leader Álex Márquez (Gresini/Ducati).
The Spaniard, now the most experienced Aprilia rider as he enters his third season with the RS-GP, focused on the 2023 and 2024 versions, rather than the 2025 version. However, the #25 found encouraging conclusions, especially regarding the electronics:
– It was a really positive day. First of all, we didn’t have the 2025 spec in the box, so we were focusing a lot on the 2023 and 2024 bikes to understand many things. For me, basically the 2024 was a bit better, but we started working with different things on the bikes. We worked a lot on the electronics throughout the day, it was my worst point over the last two years. And now I felt something different on the bike, I feel I can use more my style with the electronics. This is one of the good points from the day. For sure, in the future we’ll have problems with the electronics again, but now we see a set-up for more or less all tracks. It was a very, very important day, also to see because now we have two or three different people in the box. I’m happy with how they came. Overall, it was a very positive day for me.
The electronics part was what excited Fernández the most, as he expects further improvements in the future: ‘I can tell you that we improved a lot in the electronics, I saw something different at the end. I think for the future we will improve more with Fabiano [Sterlacchini, new Aprilia’s technical director]’.