Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales says a disastrous run for him and team-mate Aleix Espargaro in MotoGP’s British Grand Prix “woke up people” at the Italian marque.
The Silverstone weekend highlighted Aprilia’s struggles in race trim as Vinales dropped from eighth to 13th at the finish with heavy tyre degradation and Espargaro likewise slumped to sixth behind a quintet of Ducatis after starting from pole.
The result was particularly a disappointment for Aprilia as the 5.9km circuit usually plays into the strengths of the RS-GP, with Espargaro famously winning last year’s race despite stern opposition from Ducati.
The Noale factory has had a little under two weeks to analyse what went wrong in Britain this year and try to understand why it is struggling to replicate its early season form.
Vinales claims that Aprilia remains a potent challenger in qualifying and sprint on softer tyres, as vindicated by Espargaro’s pole at Silverstone, but its pace in grands prix is now becoming a serious cause for worry.
“Obviously Silverstone started some alarms because it is a track where usually we should be on the podium,” said the Spaniard.
“So being that [far] at the back and with a lot of problems takes you a bit under consideration if you are approaching the weekend in a correct way or treating the tyres in the correct way.
“It seems the bike is very different to last year and somehow in the beginning of this season, I don’t know if because of the tarmac or however, it was much easier to take out the maximum performance in the race.
“Now it seems complicated because in quali we are very fast, in sprint race we defend ourselves, but on Sunday it’s hard to be competitive.
“So we need to understand why, because in the first few races we have been very competitive on the Sunday of the weekend.”
Maverick Vinales, Aprilia Racing Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Aprilia remains the only manufacturer to beat Ducati in 2024 after the opening 10 rounds of the season, courtesy of Vinales’ success in the US Grand Prix back in April.
Since then the Borgo Panigale marque has pulled away from the opposition, particularly with the latest-specification GP24, leaving even podiums as an unlikely outcome for rivals.
Vinales hopes this weekend’s Austrian GP will start to provide some answers about its loss in form and help the factory return to the front later in the year.
“From my point of view,…
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