After talking about the issue of Aprilia’s (slower) development, especially in a year in which it has a satellite team, Aleix Espargaro excused RNF Racing and attributed the main responsibility for the development of the RS-GP to himself, without forgetting that he himself asked Aprilia to supply the most up-to-date version of the bike to the RNF duo.
Aprilia has a satellite team for the first time in MotoGP, but Aleix Espargaro has already questioned its (little) contribution to the Aprilia project and now at Sepang, after talking about some problems on Aprilia’s part to “catch up” with the pace of development of the other manufacturers, he recalled what he “asked” Aprilia when the partnership was confirmed:
– I don’t want to… I said from the start, because they asked me, that it would be better to give two complete factory bikes like mine to Miguel Oliveira and Raul Fernandez, but it’s not that easy. It’s the first year for us [with a satellite], for Aprilia, it’s not easy.
The spaniard then put some water on the boil and clarified that it’s his job to develop the bike, and that Razlan Razali’s team shouldn’t be put in check: ‘Anyway, I don’t want to blame RNF: it’s my fault for going fast, it’s my job to develop the bike and Aprilia’s job to give me a strong bike and you can never, ever put pressure on the satellite team’.