This Monday, Miguel Oliveira had the opportunity to test the latest version of Aprilia’s MotoGP bike during the testing day at Misano. The CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP rider, who finished seventh on the timesheet, had the feeling that it was a better bike than his current one.
The Portuguese rider spoke with the press about his impression about this year’s RS-GP: ‘It was… there is nothing outstanding better than mine, but it’s better a little bit everywhere. It was an interesting test. The interesting factor was that with very used tyres I could still be faster than with my bike – the 2022 bike. There is a lot of potential; when you jump and you suddenly go even faster, it means there is potential there. So, I’m happy for that’.
However, according to Oliveira, the work primarily focused on the bike he has now: ‘It was also in the plans that we would not do many laps on it [the 2023 bike], because we will not be competing on this bike, so it wouldn’t make sense. And then we focused our efforts in the 2022 spec. We tried a swingwarm, a link, a steering damper – little things like these to just help us to understand how could we improve the current spec’.
Asked if he thinks it’s possible to get more performance from the current bike, the #88 said: ‘The room is much smaller than with the 2023 bike, but we try to do our best with it. We know it’s the machine we have to work. I know the limitations of the bike because I’ve ridden the new one and I’ll not become crazy if I cannot achieve the performances that the other two guys achieve, because I quite understand how the bike works now. There is more room [with the 2023 bike]; nothing now can give you a big step, but it’s little things everywhere helping you to achieve a better performance, for sure. I expected small differences’.
On the other hand, Oliveira assured that he is feeling a lot of support by Aprilia: ‘Yes, they are trying their best, for sure, to help us progress with the material that it’s available. It’s not easy for the logistics, but they are trying their best. Overall it was a good day; I didn’t do any time attacks, I could make the same lap time as I did in qualifying with the soft tyres. I’m really pleased how the test went’.