Aprilia to debut carbon fibre swingarm 'in next races'

Aprilia's new carbon fibre swingarm is due to make its debut 'in one of the next races', following a promising private test with the MotoGP team at Mugello.

That probably means either this weekend's Le Mans round, or the factory's home event at the same Mugello circuit from June 1-3.

Aleix Espargaro spent last week's test focussing on 'new components' such as the swingarm (which gave 'good sensations') as he looks to bounce back from a shocking run of technical issues that have seen him complete just one 2018 race at full speed.

"Le Mans is a lot of stop-and-go and the Aprilia is not the best for this," Espargaro said of this weekend's race. "But I don’t care about the layout or the country we’re in, I will give one million percent in the next race to put the bike on the podium."

And with just a tenth place in Texas from the four rounds, the Spaniard is prepared to throw caution to the wind.

"If there is a very small positive thing in all of this, it is that with three zeroes, it’s difficult to fight to put the bike in a good position in the championship. I don’t care. I will go 100% every weekend to try and fight for the podium until Valencia."

New team-mate Scott Redding, who has one point less than Espargaro, spent the Mugello test working on set-up.

"I like the French track. It is rather different than the others on the calendar. In the two days of testing at Mugello we made some radical changes to the setup of my RS-GP and I think we will be able to start from this information, given the positive feelings," said the Englishman.

"In these early races the results have not been what we expected, but I know that I have greater potential. I want to thank the guys on the team for the support they're giving me. They deserve a great result for all their hard work."

Ducati has used a carbon fibre MotoGP swingarm since 2009, with Honda debuting the composite on its RC213V during winter testing.

Aprilia's version has been undergoing track development with the factory test team since the end of March.