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The 2023 MotoGP season so far hasn’t been an easy one for last year’s underdog title contender Aleix Espargaro. The amazing form and consistency that launched him into new and unfamiliar territory 12 months ago is gone and, while he’s inarguably still rapid on the Aprilia RS-GP, it’s clear that something has gone missing.
The process of getting it back again is a much bigger proposition, especially when it’s pretty clear that there’s no one thing in particular that’s been lost – but rather it’s been a process that started at the midway point of 2022 and contributed to a mid-season fade that meant Espargaro slowly but surely dropped out of the title race.
That’s the 33-year-old Spaniard’s assessment of the situation, at least, as he told The Race this week when we sat down with him during a quick break in a training session at his home in Andorra.
Couldn’t come to Andorra and not see motorbikes 😁 pic.twitter.com/vKRpXjbZ6d
— Simon Patterson (@denkmit) May 8, 2023
Taking time off from riding his RS250 training machine around a local go-kart track alongside fellow MotoGP racer Jorge Martin and Moto2 rider Fermin Aldeguer, Espargaro was adamant that all the pieces he needs to return to last year’s form are still there – but that assembling the puzzle is a bigger challenge that finding the pieces.
“It’s not that I want to put any excuses,” he explained, “but that’s how I feel. I feel like I’m faster than last year, I feel like my bike is a little better than last year, but I can’t win. We are investigating a lot, trying to find out why.
“I have a lot of speed, I’ve been the quickest in almost every circuit. On Friday in Argentina and Portugal, in Jerez, the second-fastest lap of the race in America. Everywhere, I’m fast, but then in the race we struggle a lot.
“We struggle with the front pressure, we cannot overtake, and everything is about overtaking. I think we have a lot more pace than for example [KTM rider Brad] Binder – but Binder is racing 10 times better than us. We have to try to understand how to fix this.”
The root cause of that problem, of course, is easy to understand: it all stems from the way in which the current MotoGP machines, resplendent with aerodynamics and ride height devices, overload Michelin’s spec front tyre and leave riders battling with rising pressures and reduced feeling as a result.
And it means that despite having the speed necessary to be fast all season long, it hasn’t translated into a repeat of last year yet for Espargaro.
“Normally on Friday I don’t have any problem,” he explained. “I can do the pace I want, I can ride the bike how I want. But as soon as we’re with the other bikes, I can’t do corner speed and the front tyre pressure goes up, up, up.
“It’s a problem for all of MotoGP. It’s not just our problem. But I think for the type of bike that we have, Yamaha and Aprilia suffer a lot more. Our type of bike is one that really wants to be quick in the centre of the corner, to enter without the brakes into the corner.”
All of that is seen as a consequence of the influx of aerodynamics and ride height devices in recent years, technical innovations that have jumped MotoGP beyond the slower pace of tyre development. And Espargaro isn’t afraid to be his usual outspoken self in addressing that issue, either.
“It’s too much,” he insisted. “It’s too much for the tyre.
“It’s not that the tyre is not good – the tyre is fantastic. But we are adding many, many, many, many things and in the end the tyre is the same. It’s not a bad tyre, but maybe it’s not the right tyre for all of these devices. We are adding a lot of pressure, a lot of weight, we’re super fast every lap, and the tyre needs to change.
“It’s funny that one thing about Michelin tyres is that two years ago, the front ‘K- spec’ [medium] tyre was the most standard tyre. We used it everywhere, in the hot it was fantastic, and now you can’t even use it in cold conditions. No one likes it, no one is using it.
“The ‘H’ tyre that just [Marc] Marquez used sometimes and that I used sometimes – Michelin told me that just Marc and I used it sometimes – now it’s the standard tyre. We’re using it in the morning in FP3!
“This is just to make an idea of how much we’re stressing the front.”
That’s something that has been talked about extensively this year, of course, affecting most of the series’ brands – but, with Espargaro honest about how Ducati in particular seems to have handled the situation better than its rivals, he said it’s the most significant issue that he’s facing even when he knows he’s fast.
“It’s crazy how easy Pecco [Bagnaia] and the KTMs can overtake when I can’t overtake anybody. It’s difficult for me.
“The other bikes look like they’re able to do more of a vee, stopping then turning with a little more torque in the bottom than us.
“If you analyse for example KTM, they’re using the rear to stop the bike and accelerate. They’re always sliding, always sitting back. The Aprilia is the opposite, and when you ask too much from the front in hot conditions in the middle of the mix in a race, it’s something difficult.
“KTM and Ducati understand a little better than us the way of MotoGP, the rules, and the way they ride, they don’t need to be on record pace. Actually, in Jerez and in Argentina they weren’t record-pace races, but they were able to win because they stay on the front and no one can overtake them.
“I’m not blaming them. This is what it’s about. It’s racing, and it’s about being in the first position, not being the fastest one.”
What’s even worse from an Aprilia perspective is that Espargaro isn’t yet sure where the solution to both problems – the team’s own issues in matching Ducati and KTM or MotoGP’s greater issues with the front Michelin tyre – lies.
Working hard at the recent post-race Jerez test to try to understand what can be done in the short-term to hopefully return Aprilia to competitiveness, he also acknowledged that there’s a bigger problem that needs to be solved for the greater good of the sport.
“That’s a good question,” he admitted, when asked by The Race if it can be fixed by Aprilia’s engineers in-season. “We’re trying, and I tried big steps on the Monday test, trying to load the rear, to put more weight on it, and trying a different pump on the brake to lock more the rear.
“We tried many things, because again it’s not about the speed. We’re super fast. It’s about how to race on Sunday. And hopefully we can fix it, but it’s difficult.
“I’m not sure what the solution is. If I knew that the solution is ‘change this’, then I would push Dorna, I would push Michelin. But I don’t know what the solution is. Do we remove the wings, do we change – as Michelin wants – the height of the front tyre, do we allow everyone to use the pressure they want? I don’t know what the right solution is.”
In any case, it’s pretty obvious that the situation is making an impact not just on Espargaro’s performance but also on his own psyche – something evident in the crashes that have started to sneak into his performances of late.
“It’s super frustrating,” Espargaro admitted. “You can’t imagine how. The most difficult thing for me in my sport is to be fast. It’s the most difficult thing, and the easiest thing for me now! I’m super fast – I’ve been the fastest one almost all season in practice, but then in the race I can’t match the same pace.
“I struggle a lot with the front moving, moving, I get stuck behind riders I cannot overtake, and it’s very frustrating. I think the crashes were my fault, but the reason why is the frustration.
“You have to accept things, and maybe last year I accepted every position as a super bonus but this year fourth, fifth, sixth, is not enough. I want to win, win, win, and maybe I cannot yet. I need to accept it, and that’s why in Jerez even though I had the pace to win I decided to finish in fifth place.
“It wasn’t really enough after the pole position, but we have to start somewhere.”
