Why Maverick Vinales isn’t expecting Aprilia heat issues in Indonesia MotoGP
“The temperature is not very demanding in this track”
Maverick Vinales says he is not anticipating a return of the heat issues that caused problems for Aprilia riders last year during MotoGP’s flyaway races this weekend in Indonesia.
This weekend’s Indonesian Grand Prix marks the first of five overseas rounds in six weeks as the 2024 season reaches its climax.
In that time, MotoGP will race at sweltering tracks like Mandalika, Buriram and Sepang.
Last year, the Aprilia bikes encountered major heat issues which caused physical problems for its riders and is something it doesn’t appear to have been able to get on top of yet.
While conditions will be hot this weekend, Vinales says the layout of the Mandalika track shouldn’t see a return of these issues.
“To be honest, in this track - especially Mandalika - the temperature is not very demanding on the bike because you are all the time leaning,” he explained on Thursday.
“So, you don’t spend most of the time on the bike, like in Thailand where there are long straights.
“Here you don’t have that, so probably here we will not suffer on the temperature. So, this is really good.”
Aprilia has endured a tough time since the summer break, with its form seemingly dropping further away from that of Ducati’s in recent rounds.
After terrible Aragon and San Marino GPs, there was a bit of improvement last weekend at the Emilia Romagna GP as Vinales finished sixth and team-mate Aleix Espargaro was eighth.
Vinales - who was on the podium last year at Mandalika - believes Aprilia has “recovered the speed” it was missing on the RS-GP and is confident of continuing that this weekend.
“We are motivated and confident seeing the result of Misano, seeing we recovered the speed, we made an improvement,” he said.
“So, we are really optimistic for the next weekends.
“Of course, I arrive here with a lot of motivation.
“I don’t expect anything at the moment because I need to see how the bike is going.
“But I arrive with a lot of enthusiasm, because I think in Misano we recovered the speed, which is very important.
“And now we can make here a continuation of that speed.”
