While Aleix Espargaro has been positively impressed by Aprilia’s 2020 RS-GP MotoGP upgrade, he’s also felt an overall shift in how the team operates and hopes the combination of changes provide progress in terms of results.
Pol Espargaro says he’s “never felt so ready and never been so close” since joining KTM and has confidence the updated RC16 can be competitive from the off in 2020.
While Miguel Oliveira is building back up his MotoGP fitness following shoulder surgery over the winter, the Red Bull KTM Tech3 rider feels the Austrian manufacturer has delivered clear improvements since he’s been out of action.
Aleix Espargaro’s first experience of the new Aprilia MotoGP bike left him with plenty to smile about but also a list of demands to extract better performance as he focused on the team’s new 90-degree V4 engine.
- After Yamaha left the door open for Jorge Lorenzo to make wildcard MotoGP appearances in 2020 , his home round at Circuit de Catalunya has been targeted for his racing return.
Pol Espargaro kept KTM on top of the MotoGP timesheets during the third and final day of the 2020 Sepang Shakedown Test. While most Tuesday attention was on the return of Jorge Lorenzo to Yamaha, Espargaro set the best lap of the week so far with an early time of 1m 59.444s.
Aprilia has provided the first pictures of its 'all-new' 2020 RS-GP MotoGP machine, which will make its track debut at Sepang. Seeking to break free from the bottom of the constructors' standings, the Italian factory has introduced a raft of changes for this year's bike.
Aprilia boss Massimo Rivola heralds his team’s 2020 MotoGP bike as “an ambitious project” given the wide-ranging changes expected, with the new RS-GP set to be the machine with the biggest changes as it looks to close the performance gap to its rivals.
Aleix Espargaro has raced against the likes of Valentino Rossi, Casey Stoner, Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez - not to mention his own brother Pol - during his time in MotoGP.
In one of the all-time greatest decades of motorcycle grand prix world championship racing, the face of the sport has changed remarkably from the move to 1000cc four-strokes in MotoGP in 2012, to the introduction of the single-specification Magneti Marelli electronics package and switch to Michel
Pol Espargaro says adapting from a satellite rider to a factory rider when he joined Red Bull KTM came as his biggest lesson in MotoGP which involved a complete change in approach.
With the 2019 MotoGP world championship over and all riders heading off for their winter breaks before next season’s preparations really ramp up, it gives an ideal time to add up all the Rider Ratings to see who comes out on top.
On a dire opening day for all KTM riders at Sepang, both Pol Espargaro and Mika Kallio concede their team will need extreme setup changes to close the performance gap to the front-runners having seen its testing pace at the Malaysian track disappear.
'You would not believe it before the start, huh?!' smiled Andrea Iannone, after making history for Aprilia by putting the RS-GP into the MotoGP race lead at Phillip Island on Sunday.
Aleix Espargaro praised MotoGP's Race Direction for listening to the riders and cancelling qualifying at Phillip Island. Strong gusts of wind plagued the Saturday action in Australia, intensifying in the afternoon.
Pol Espargaro fears Red Bull KTM’s charge at the Japanese MotoGP is restrained by the cooler conditions compared to its rivals as poor weather takes hold at Motegi.
Pol Esparagaro says he’s eager to see how Johann Zarco performs while standing in at LCR Honda for the final three rounds compared to his Red Bull KTM exploits but accepts he will be “another rider on the grid that is competitive”.
Aleix Espargaro has called his mechanical retirement from the Thailand MotoGP a “shame” for Aprilia as he cut a frustrated figure having seen a top 10 result slip away.
Pol Espargaro was just behind Marc Marquez when the reigning MotoGP champion was thrown into a vicious highside during morning practice at Buriram in Thailand. The KTM rider was so close he later joked that he thought about trying to catch Marquez as he landed.
Aleix Espargaro is confident Aprilia is changing its working processes and mentality as he urges the Noale factory to move away from working “like a small team” as it aims to climb the MotoGP grid.
Once again, Aleix Espargaro took the Aprilia RS-GP's best result of the season so far in the Aragon MotoGP. For the last two years, Espargaro has claimed sixth place in front of his home fans, equalling the factory's best result of the four-stroke era.