Aleix Espargaro: Aprilia found 'good way' with carbon fibre swingarm

Having experimented with a carbon fibre MotoGP swingarm since May 2018, Aleix Espargaro believes Aprilia has now honed its design to the point of being race ready.

The new swingarm is one of a number of upgrades made to the RS-GP for this season, with the bike performing impressively in Espargaro's hands during the Qatar tests so far, including fifth on the timesheets in Thursday's penultimate day.

"The problem was that at the beginning of the project for the [carbon fibre] swinging arm, we were not able to make it exactly the same from one to the other," Espargaro explained.

"Also at the beginning it looks like the carbon-fibre swingarm [should be] immediately lighter [than the aluminium] but it was not like this, because if you try at the beginning to find a good rigidity, we were not very good on the weight.

"But after some important work [Aprilia] have found the good way to do the swingarm, this year the rigidly is good and also the weight of the swingarm is better than the aluminium one.

"So I think we are on the good way. But it's just the beginning because this is the first pre-season for us using a carbon-fibre swingarm, so I'm sure that we still have to discover different things in that area."

Ducati, Honda and KTM exclusively use carbon-fibre swingarms. Yamaha also has new carbon fibre options available alongside the standard aluminium, while reigning champion's Suzuki have so far chosen to stick with aluminium.

Espargaro's team-mate Lorenzo Savadori was 23rd quickest on Thursday.