Aleix Espargaro has responded in bewilderment at his own Aprilia Racing team manager’s assertion he did have new parts to sample on his Aprilia RS-GP during the recent Misano test, asking reporters to ‘check the bike’ to spot something different.
The next twist in what appears to be an increasingly fractious relationship between Espargaro and Aprilia, the Spaniard was emotional on Thursday ahead of the San Marino MotoGP at Misano when discussing the lack of progress made by his team.
Pointing to the test where he claimed he had nothing new to trial, he said he was ‘upset’ at the apparent lethargy when it comes to improving a bike that is consistently slowest of the six manufacturers competing in the MotoGP.
However, his boss Romano Albesiano refuted that claim, telling pit-lane reporter Simon Crafar that his claims were untrue, saying there were updates to the electronics package and the stiffness of the bike.
It’s a reaction that our sister publication Crash.net reports left Espargaro ‘almost speechless’.
“[I have] No answer,” he said. “I can’t answer the question because I can’t understand. I don’t know what to say. Ask the other rider. Maybe he has the answer. Or check my bike. If you can spot something different let me know as well!”
Relations between Aprilia and Espargaro breaking down?
It’s bizarre to think that two major factors in the Aprilia project – rider and team manager – are disagreeing with one another through the media when it comes to bike development.
For the most part, Espargaro – who will enter his fourth season with the team in 2020 - seems happy to stay with Aprilia and make a success of it but has admitted he’d have hoped to see more ingredients for success by now.
It had been a strong start to the Misano weekend for Espargaro when he set the fifth fastest lap in FP1 and he was still in Q2 contention after FP2, but a crash in FP3 put paid to his chances and he ended the session in 18th, albeit still ahead of his team-mate Andrea Iannone.
