During pre-season testing, it’s natural for riders of the same manufacturer to try different solutions, and even in Grand Prix races, the same bike doesn’t have exactly the same settings for two riders – as each has their own preferences and needs, even if the feedback is very similar.
At Aprilia, Maverick Viñales was asked if he has the same impressions as his teammate Aleix Espargaró – who considers that the new RS-GP has a lot of aerodynamic load and poses some handling difficulties, although it’s good. Viñales replied:
– Yeah, that’s clear. But I’m using a aero package that is a bit different, so probably I have a feeling different from him. But at the end both of us were fast. […]. When you go to the Sprint simulation like I did in Sepang, you see what you have to improve on the bike. I don’t know why in this track; for example in Sepang it was completely the opposite – you start, you go to the box, the tyre makes a drop. Every time you go out and in, there was a drop in the rear tyre. In Losail it’s the opposite – everytime you stop and you go, the tyre looks fresh until the lap 16. But as soon as I did a Sprint race, the feeling is totally different. You can see the tyre is heating up. In a simulation the pace is totally different than when you do two laps, you stop, you stop, you do two laps, you stop. It’s totally different.