Aprilia Racing CEO Massimo Rivola has admitted that Aprilia was always expecting to end its wait for a premier class win in 2022, though not until “later this season.”
The Italian manufacturer has made great progress towards the front of the MotoGP over the past few seasons following the appointment of Rivola at the start of 2019, Aprilia having struggled to make the steps needed to hit the front under previous boss Romano Albesiano since the brand shifted from the World Superbike Championship to MotoGP in 2015.
With Albesiano now leading the technical part of the operation rather than the entire organisation, an all-new RS-GP was introduced for the 2020 campaign – Aprilia electing to ditch its previous 75 degree V4 engine to a more conventional 90 degree unit as well as completely revise the aero of the machine amongst over enhancements.
Having scored its first MotoGP rostrum at Silverstone last year with Aleix Espargaro, the Spaniard then dominated the Argentinean Grand Prix weekend as he scored Aprilia’s first pole on Saturday before then defeating Jorge Martin on Sunday to claim his and the Noale-based marque’s first ever premier class success.
Rivola – who worked with Ferrari’s Formula 1 outfit for a decade before joining Aprilia – revealed that expectations were high within Aprilia that it could finally break its victory duck in 2022 following the latest developments to its machine and its performance in pre-season testing, though admitted that he felt it would come later than the third round of the term.
“To be honest I thought about it (first Aprilia win) many times, I was expecting it to come a bit later this season because I saw the progress of the bike over the years and I saw how competitive we were during testing,” said Rivola.
“I think in Qatar we could have scored a podium but we preferred to take good points, Indonesia was a tough race with tricky conditions but the potential was there.
“A weird coincidence was that I couldn’t sleep before the podium at Silverstone and then before the race here, so this is a good sign when I can’t sleep!
“It’s a big victory for the team and for Aleix (Espargaro), I’m very proud of everyone and especially Aleix after doing 200 races to score a pole, fastest lap, win and also lead the championship is quite unusual and I think he can get used to fighting for the top positions.”
Aprilia’s strong weekend was also highlighted by a much-stronger performance from Maverick Vinales, the nine-time premier class race winner having largely struggled to get up to speed with the RS-GP since joining the team from Yamaha in the second half of last year.
Vinales took the chequered flag seventh after running fifth for a large portion of the contest; a result that Rivola – who reckons Espargaro is the “perfect reference” for Vinales’ development – is confident will become more frequent given the “relationship and great respect” between his two riders.
“He (Espargaro) is the perfect reference for Maverick (Vinales) because today we saw him completely different compared to the first race, the relationship and great respect they have with each other is something that will bring the team higher and higher,” added Rivola.
“I’m sure Maverick has a huge potential, he will come stronger and stronger.
“After you score the first victory you cannot stop, you need to keep pushing because if you don’t you could end up having an unhappy end if you don’t end stronger than you started.”
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