Espargaro: Same problems all the time

Aleix Espargaro says he’s ‘tried everything’ with his Aprilia without success as he admits he ‘doesn’t know how to go faster’ with the Italian manufacturer in Austria.

While team-mate Scott Redding gave a review of Aprilia’s efforts in Austria this weekend as ‘hell from the beginning’, Espargaro echoed his sentiments having found no answers to the team’s lack of pace at the Red Bull Ring hampered by both high tyre wear and fuel consumption.

Espargaro made an eye-catching start to the Austrian MotoGP to bolt into the top ten but as his tyre faded he dropped down the order and out of the points – over 30 seconds off the winner.

“Overall the problems I have had are always the same all the time,” Espargaro said. “Sincerely, I don't know how to go faster. I tried everything. I think I'm in a good moment of my career, I'm focused, I'm fit, I'm relaxed, but I can't go faster with this bike.

“This weekend we suffer a bit with the consumption. Then we have to make the gearing longer to consume less, then the acceleration is worse, and a lean map too. So obviously this weekend has been more difficult.

“They overtook me outside, in acceleration, every bike arrived, every bike overtook me on the gas. It's frustrating, because there's nothing you can do.

“You open the throttle and the bike stays there, so there's nothing I can do. It pisses me off, but we have to improve.”

The older Espargaro, who was without brother Pol in Austria as he recovered from spine injuries, is eager to see improvements at the one-day private test planned at Misano before the next round at Silverstone and hopes the Austria round can be forgotten given the unique characteristics of the track.

While Redding lamented Aprilia's move to cut down its Misano test from three days to one, Espargaro says the issue focuses around having new and significant parts to experiment with.

“We now have an important test in Misano with many new things to try,” he said. “I hope the situation will change a little bit. For sure it can't go worse, because that's difficult. But I'm positive.

“We have many things to try, so it's going to be very important to be organised and very precise in what we try. 

“We have a test again in Misano after the race, we will stay two more days. So it's not a matter of tests, we are testing a lot. It's a matter of when we go into the tests, we need new parts to try.

“I tried the bike high, low, I changed my position, my footpegs. I did everything on the bike, there is nothing more that we can do. So we need new parts to improve.”