The journey of Aprilia to success after 25 years

The Argentina MotoGP did spring up a few surprises undoubtedly. To top that list it would be Aprilia who made it to the podium with Esparagaro. This is a new beginning for them as they have been always criticized for their performance. So the question now comes into the racing history created by Aprilia and Esparagaro that came up in the MotoGP Argentina race. It has been a long journey from them with only partial success. It started to change in the year 2019-2020 with the Piaggio management coming in and spending money to get success. Former Ferrari Formula 1 staffer joined  focusing on the engineering. This is how the scenario has started to change. In 2020 the new engine came up which was 90 degree and after 25 years finally success came to them.

During Sunday’s race Espargaró’s RS-GP was the third fastest bike, at 212.6mph/342.2kmh, just behind the Ducatis of Jorge Martin (213mph/342.9km/h) and Pecco Bagnaia (213.9mph/244.3km/h). The Aprilia may not have the same brute power as the Desmosedici, but it had very similar straight-line performance at Termas de Rio Hondo, thanks to better traction than out of Turns 3 and 4 and its excellent aerodynamics package.

Also important is the RS-GP’s exhaust-valve, which allows engineers to vary engine-braking force for better corner-entry rear traction according to different lean angles and so on. Then finally, the details

“I think your performance in MotoGP is very much related to very small detail changes, the optimisation you do with your data engineers and the mental condition of your riders,” says Albesiano.

It’s no coincidence that the RS-GP has enjoyed its greatest successes at fast, flowing tracks like Silverstone and Termas. It may struggle to win at more stop-and-go circuits, but the bike is still improving, so who knows?

All that we do know for sure is that Aprilia leads the MotoGP world championship, making it the fifth Italian marque to do so, after Gilera, MV Agusta, Cagiva and Ducati.