Aprilia heat concern: “I’m a little bit worried, you cannot breathe”

Aleix Espargaro, Maverick Vinales and Miguel Oliveira voiced concerns over the heat emitted by their Aprilias during last weekend’s San Marino MotoGP Sprint race.

The problem made headlines a year ago when roasting temperatures on the RS-GPs forced Vinales to retire from October’s Thai Grand Prix, while an exhausted Espargaro reached the flag despite being “unable to breathe”.

Aprilia pledged to work on the heat issue for 2024.

But the factory’s mid-season aero upgrade doesn’t appear to have helped, leaving its riders worried after struggling in the 29-degree air temperature during a half-distance Sprint race on Saturday.

“Today we suffered a lot with the heat,” Espargaro said on Saturday. “Maverick and I arrived at the limit in the last part of the race. It’s really strange because it wasn’t that hot.

“The new fairing looks even worse than the old one in terms of the temperature. I’m a little bit worried for the next races.”

Just one more European round, the second Misano event, now remains before the start of this year’s flyaway run in Indonesia, Japan, Australia, Thailand and Malaysia.

Espargaro also highlighted that the heat takes its toll on all ‘components’, human and mechanical.

“The heat is amazing,” he said. “And if the heat comes to me, it also comes to the wheels, the brakes, the temperature of the oil, the forks, to all the hardware of the bike. it’s something we need to improve.”

“I'm really concerned about the hot [flyaway] races,” agreed Vinales. “Because Austria was difficult to finish and here the Sprint was hard to finish. The problem is that when you are on the straight, the heat goes to your neck. So after 5 or 6 laps, you start to don't breathe.”

“Mandalika [Indonesia] is different, because you don't have a long straight, so you are out of the bike,” he added. “But in Buriram, which has long straights… I don't know what we are going to do.

“It is tough. I don't know for the other riders of Aprilia, but I never struggled with this [before], and now I am struggling a lot. Especially to breathe, there is one moment that you start to lose focus because you cannot breathe.”

Vinales, who finished just ahead of Espargaro in eleventh during the Sprint, said the issue becomes worse when riding behind other bikes.

“The problem is also that sometimes in the practice you cannot feel it, it’s when you go to the race,” he said.

After taking the chequered flag in 15th place, Trackhouse rider Miguel Oliveira cited high grip levels as a contributing factor.

“It was really hard to get to the finish as the heat that we get from the bike is intense - the bike became much more physical with this [high] grip and it was just really hot," he said.

The Sunday race was interrupted by a rain shower, with Espargaro, Vinales and Oliveira's team-mate Raul Fernandez among those to gamble on a pit stop.