until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
Since MotoGP has headed overseas for the block of four flyaway races, Aprilia and Aleix Espargaro’s unexpected 2022 title challenge has fallen completely apart.
It finally came to a conclusion last weekend at the Malaysian Grand Prix with a disappointing top 10 finish for the Spaniard at a circuit where he and team-mate Maverick Vinales (who finished outside the points) looked incredibly strong in winter testing at the start of the year.
Aprilia only missed the podium four times in the preceding 13 races (and with two of those being down first to Espargaro’s lap counting error in Barcelona and then his contact with Fabio Quartararo in Assen), so the squad headed to the opening of the four races in Japan full of confidence that an underdog world championship might actually be on the cards for them.
Yet the best result that the two riders were able to record at Motegi, Buriram, Phillip Island and Sepang was a pair of sevenths, with the team never once looking capable of fighting for podiums let alone the wins that Espargaro needed to keep his title hopes alive.
And with that disappointing run of results at an absolutely critical time has come scathing criticism from within their own camp, with ‘team captain’ Espargaro the first to complain both publicly and in the garage about the situation that they’ve found themselves in, something that he echoed during the weekend at Sepang.
“We were very slow,” he conceded after the race. “The bike was very slow on the straights, zero traction at all from the beginning, and believe me I tried everything I could. I really pushed like hell from the first lap knowing that every single point is important for the third place in the championship, but it wasn’t enough. I was very slow all race.
“All the past four races were a nightmare. We are trying to discover this. It’s a technical issue, 100%, because both riders have the same problem. It’s impossible that we shined a lot in Europe – if I was not on the podium, Maverick was – and now we’re not even close to the top 10. It’s crazy.”
However, despite struggling at Sepang, there remains some modicum of good news for Espargaro: the belief that while Aprilia might have discovered more problems than solutions during testing, he knows where the solution lies – and that this tough season is one that they can build on going forward.
“I know perfectly [what has changed], because it’s the third year in a row that we’ve had these problems,” he said. “Both riders, more or less, it’s the third year that we’ve been slower in the second part of the championship. That’s something that we have to discuss internally, but I know what it is. I don’t think it’s super difficult to fix.
“I’m very proud of everyone at Noale, because what we did this year was amazing; it will last forever. But at the same time, the way that we ended the season is a bit sad, because if we were able to maintain our level in the past few races we would have arrived in Valencia still with some chances. We’ve really lost it. It looks like the dream was too big for us, but hopefully we can learn about it and we can be more ready for the future.”
One of those issues is relatively easy to identify from even outside the box: a lack of development during the season, something that’s always been a weakness of the team thanks to their somewhat-limited resources and smaller presence on the grid, something set to change next year as they expand to four bikes.
But while he won’t be drawn publicly on what bigger issues he doubled down on his belief that there needs to change within the squad to make sure that similar issues don’t come their way in 2023, there is one thing that he is absolutely adamant about: make those changes, and the team won’t just be as competitive as they were in 2022, but more so.
“I really believe in this team,” he insisted, “and I really believe that next year we can fight again for the title if we do the same things we did in the first part of this year. Without any doubt. If I did more or less similar from the first part, I would be leading the championship now, and hopefully we can learn from this.
“Aprilia have learned a lot this year, about the pressure of being in the top of the championship, and me as a rider has also learned how to ride with this pressure, how to fight for podiums, victories, pole positions. I have a feeling that next year won’t be the same, but even better.
“But we need to be more constant. I didn’t have the speed in the second part of the championship and I didn’t feel the bike was as competitive as it was in the first part, when a lot of people were saying that it was the best bike.
“I’m very proud with what we achieved this year. The bike was very competitive, clearly on another level from all other versions of the RS-GP, but I feel like it’s not enough to fight for the title even if we’re at the end of the season and we’re still not far. But I’m 100% convinced that next year will be better.”
