Aprilia Racing had its best rider in Aleix Espargaro in 2023, with the rider finishing sixth in the championship, one place ahead of Maverick Viñales. While a few years ago this could have been considered a good result in general terms, the truth is that this is not the opinion of the italian manufacturer’s management, especially considering that in 2022 the team was even in contention for the title.
Paolo Bonora, Aprilia’s Team Manager, analysed the season in this way, making it clear that he… expected more: ‘To be honest, it wasn’t a good year for us. Possibly because we started the year with too high expectations. We didn’t achieve the objectives we had set ourselves’.
Although there have been good performances, there has also been a lot of wasted opportunities where it was possible to do more: ‘Apart from the good races we had at Silverstone and Barcelona, in the second half of the season we didn’t score many points, we wasted a lot of good situations’ he said, before clarifying that he is fully aware of where to improve, and that we have to take that step to get closer to their rivals:
– We know what our weak point is. On some specific circuits we’re doing very well, especially on tracks with fast corners like Barcelona or Silverstone. But we need to improve the bike when it comes to hard braking, especially when you come off a straight at high speed and have to stop the bike and pick it and go as fast as possible on the exit. Here we have to improve on our rivals.