Muir praises Aprilia winter developments on RSV4 RF

Milwaukee Aprilia team boss Shaun Muir has underlined his squad’s predicted 2018 gains by hinting at the Aprilia factory developments made with its RSV4 RF over the winter.

Having completed two-day tests at Jerez and Portimao Muir has been impressed by the improvement produced by a raft of updates thrown at its factory Aprilia machines to cure its issues of rear grip and weight distribution to aid its braking performance to keep stride with its factory rivals.

While both Eugene Laverty and Lorenzo Savadori left the two tests content with Milwaukee Aprilia’s progress, Muir has given a glowing review of the updates on its RSV4 RF bikes from the Italian manufacturer and is eager to see that momentum continue in Phillip Island.

“Aprilia Racing have done a very good job over the winter break to get us in a stronger position going forwards,” Muir said. “We can see the gains and hope to take further steps at the next two-day test in Phillip Island.

“We left the previous test at Jerez in a good position, having worked through a lot of parts and settings. Coming to Portimao there is a big difference in the two circuits, so we knew that there was a lot to be learnt from this test, mostly the transfer of the base setting from one circuit to the next.

“All in all it was a successful test, and we are in a much better position than this time last year. Considering that the entire World Superbike paddock were testing here, we appear to have comparative times on race tyres which is positive.”

After the heights of winning the 2014 World Superbike championship with Sylvain Guintoli, the Italian manufacturer has struggled in the production-based series and its issues were compounded by the withdrawal of the factory effort in 2016.

The factory-supported SMR-run Milwaukee Aprilia squad somewhat struggled against its manufacturer rivals and failed to reach the rostrum all season in 2017.