Aprilia has made significant progress in MotoGP in recent years, now competing at the top positions. Aleix Espargaró and Maverick Viñales have contracts until the end of 2024, as do the riders from the satellite team, Miguel Oliveira and Raúl Fernández. The future is planned with this quartet, even in the event of riders like Fabio Quartararo and Marc Márquez becoming available on the market.
In an interview with GPOne, Aprilia’s technical director, Romano Albesiano, was asked if the manufacturer is ready for one of these two riders. In his answer, he made it clear that there are no intentions to hire them in the short term: ‘I think the bike is mature, as well as the team. But it’s not in our short-term plans. We have four fantastic riders, and we have improved together with Aleix. He has matured, improved his ability to work with the team, making the right requests. In my opinion, this gives an idea of how much a rider can evolve. For example, if I apply this evolution to Maverick, who is already at very high levels, and perhaps he improves in some aspects like consistency or something else, I think we are talking about a rider with crazy potential’.
The Italian is also excited about the riders from the CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team: ‘Oliveira is a wonderful rider. I don’t know where he would be without the bad luck he has had so far; he made a fantastic start. As soon as there is a chance, he is in the front. Then he has an intelligence, an approach that is wonderful. I also love Raúl Fernández because I think he has tremendous talent and only needs support, calm, a company that believes in him, and we are that company. We will give him a lot of time to grow and show his worth, which we believe is very high’.
In this context, Albesiano denies that Márquez and Quartararo are necessary riders for Aprilia: ‘If Márquez or Quartararo are available, I wouldn’t say we particularly need them’.