Aprilia managed to supply the current version of the RS-GP to Miguel Oliveira from the beginning of the MotoGP season, but it was a hard task from a logistical point of view. The satellite team Trackhouse Racing may hay see Raúl Fernández having this year’s bike later in the season.
Massimo Rivola, Aprilia Racing’s CEO, explained why few weeks ago the manufacturer thought it would be impossible to supply current bikes to the satellite team: ‘At the end there are eight bikes, two per rider, so we said it’s not just possible. In fact we tought it just wasn’t possible even for Miguel. But we do it. We had to squeeze the drawing office, we had to squeeze the purchasing office and we had to squeeze the suppliers. And that was so far the most critical part, so I need to speak to the three riders with the 2024 that they cannot fall in the test because we haven’t many spare parts yet. But soon we will be, let’s say, in the full position’.
The Italian said that the project with Trackhouse Racing started one year earlier, but even so the opportunity was grabbed: ‘At the end we were supposed to start one year later. We tought: «Let’s start planning things properly, with a good vision». But when we had the opportunity to do it, «OK, let’s do it». And we decided to do it. It’s a big motivation, it’s a big opportunity’.
For the next year’s season, Rivola assured that the four Aprilia will be identical since the get-go: ‘We know that for example in 2025 we will have four exactly same bikes [from the start]. For sure that helps the performance. We saw other manufacturers doing that and it helps’.