This year, Aprilia had, for the first time, a satellite team in MotoGP – RNF. The partnership proved challenging in terms of results, falling somewhat short of expectations—with some unfortunate incidents and also issues that emerged with the main sponsor of the Malaysian team, CryptoDATA.
Aprilia’s CEO, Massimo Rivola, told SPEEDWEEK.com that he was expecting more from Miguel Oliveira… though he isn’t harsh on the Portuguese rider:
– We could say we expected a bit more from Miguel, but too many things happened. Additionally, he recently became a father again, and we are happy for him, but these are things where you don’t know if something bothers him and makes him lose a few tenths, even though he says he’s fine. And if you lose two tenths, that’s two rows on the grid.
Regarding Raúl Fernández, the Italian – who considers this season to have been ‘a bit unlucky’ for RNF – expressed satisfaction: ‘I’m happy with Raúl, honestly. It’s up to us to make the bike more reliable and find performance. But I hope that next year, he troubles the other Aprilia riders more, and that was the goal’.