Aleix Espargaro delivers judgement on Aprilia’s major new aero
"It looks good in terms of performance but it’s not a step forward in terms of temperature.”
Aleix Espargaro has explained the pros and cons of Aprilia’s new aero package.
Espargaro was second fastest in Friday practice at the British MotoGP.
The manufacturer has brought its sole permitted in-season aero update to Silverstone this weekend.
The big hope is that it improves ventilation - or, at least, reduces physical effort required - around the hottest tracks of the MotoGP season.
“I used it,” Espargaro said at Silverstone, where Crash.net are in the paddock.
“The bike is a little more agile which is important. The bike was [previously] difficult to move, difficult to understand where the limit is.
“This fairing is more agile. It’s not day and night, but it’s not bad.
“Unfortunately during the weekends you cannot do back-to-back testing which I like to do.”
Last year, the Aprilia experienced overheating issues which this aero update was designed to mitigate.
But Espargaro said: “It’s not the temperature. We can reach 25 degrees here and it’s not a disaster.
“The problem is the humidity. We, humans, cannot breathe and the engines cannot breathe!
“When the engine can’t breathe, everything gets super hot, and we pay. Everything goes into the mouth, into the rider.
“I’m not positive. I saw the new fairing. It looks good in terms of performance but it’s not a step forward in terms of temperature.”
This weekend’s Aprilia aero package will be run by factory riders Espargaro and Maverick Vinales, and Trackhouse’s Miguel Oliveira and Raul Fernandez.
The manufacturer insisted the target is to ‘increase efficiency, i.e. the ratio between the aerodynamic downforce and the drag produced by the aerodynamic devices.
‘Furthermore, the ground effect downforce has been improved when the bike is at lean angle while going around corners and sensitivity to side winds has decreased.’
Injury concern for Espargaro
Espargaro revealed that partaking in this weekend’s round was in doubt during the summer break, as he struggled with a hand injury sustained when crashing in the Assen sprint.
He said after running P2 on Friday: “A good day, especially after my Assen crash. The summer wasn’t as I expected, I had a lot of pain. I couldn’t recover as I expected.
“I felt not perfect, which is strange, but I can ride.
“I had a fracture of the fifth meta. Unfortunately, because there is not much blood going to the hand, it’s difficult to recover.
“I was upset. I had injuries in the past three seasons and, after two weeks, you can see a big difference.
“But not with [this]. I had pain after two weeks. I was worried for Silverstone.”
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
