The four Aprilia riders faced many difficulties with the extremely hot conditions at the MotoGP Thai Grand Prix. Aleix Espargaró finished exhausted, Miguel Oliveira was forced to retire due to technical issues, and his CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team teammate, Raúl Fernández, even considered the retirement.
According to the Spaniard, the task in hot races was easier with KTM RC16, which never caused troubles to him: ‘Honestly with KTM was really, really good on that kind of race, because with hot temperatures it was super good. Especially my body in the hot races is much better. But I didn’t feel something like this’.
In Fernández’s view, the current Aprilia RS-GP makes the task very hard when racing with high temperatures, explaining that this isn’t a question of lack of physical preparation:
– With that bike it’s quite difficult and it’s impossible to manage. Honestly for me, the factory boys Aleix and Maverick [Viñales] are super athletes, they are very ready – especially Aleix, he trains a lot and he is really fit. What I want to say is that this isn’t something physical, it’s something we can’t take and like this is super difficult.