Aleix Espargaro: Aprilia’s carbon fibre frame ‘really different’

It wasn’t only KTM’s MotoGP riders that got to try a carbon fibre frame during Monday’s Misano test, with Aprilia also making their version of the composite frame available to Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales.

Peter McLaren

11 Sep 2023

Aleix Espargaro crash, Misano MotoGP test, 11 September

“We have to try again. It sounds strange, but it's not worse, it's not better,” said Espargaro at lunchtime.

“It's really, really different. So we need to try in another circuit, you need to rebalance the bike.

“It's not that easy. Sometimes when you are in the level that we are right now, to improve the chassis is very difficult!”

The Spaniard, who was 16th fastest (+0.986s) in ‘Session 1’, revealed he suffered a crash (pictured) on the new frame which he attributed to being caught out by the softer ‘flex’.

“I was trying the new chassis. I lost the rear in the entry of 13. I went straight towards the wall. It was very scary… It was not really a crash. I went wide, super fast and to avoid the wall I jumped off the bike.”

The straight-talking 34-year-old, winner of the British and Catalan GPs, added:

“I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say but that the new frame is lighter and I felt also that it is a little bit more flexible, more soft, which is not really what the engineers were trying to do.

“It's a little bit better on the on the bumps - corners 1-14-15-16 - but then it's a little bit more unstable [in others]. So we need to keep working.

“We have to see also how it will be with the new the ‘24 aerodynamics because if you have a flexible chassis but you can add some weight somehow in the rear, in the front, it will also change.

“So this is why this is just a small test and we will keep going.”

But Espargaro ruled out trying the carbon fibre chassis during the remaining rounds of this season.

“For me, with the package we have, it's good enough to fight for victories. I don't want to change it,” he said.

“It's not the time to change it. We have a lot of races now. It's better to be focused on what we have. Even don't play so much with the geometry.

“At this point of the season, it's better to be focused and ‘stress’ at the maximum what you have.”

The next Official MotoGP test will be directly after the Valencia finale, at the end of November.

Vinales was third fastest in Session 1 with both factory Aprilia riders returning to the track for this afternoon’s Session 2.