The Aprilia team mounted a completely new aerodynamic kit on Aleix Espargaro’s bike this Saturday afternoon, during the first day of official pre-season tests in Portimao. In this package stands out a small wing in the front that had never been seen before on a racing bike.
One of the top engineering managers of the Noale-based company, Marco De Luca (Head of the Aprilia Racing vehicle dynamics department) is the “father” of the idea and the one in charge of carrying it forward. De Luca is in his fourth season in MotoGP, where he arrived thanks to Massimo Rivola, and comes from the world of motor racing. After studying aerospace engineering in Rome, his professional career began in Formula 1 in the Minardi team in 1990, then moving on to Benetton F1 and Ferrari (2000-2001). He became the top aerodynamicist in both Formula 1 and GT, in the DTM with Mercedes and McLaren, where he was before joining Aprilia.
“The aerodynamic work of our bike is not directly inspired by cars, aerodynamics is a global concept and we are working on original solutions to get what the riders are asking for,” De Luca explained to Motorsport.com. “Whether it’s better stability under braking, better cornering, that the bike doesn’t move at high speeds, etc. The MotoGP has increasingly sophisticated and powerful bikes, they need precise aerodynamics to keep them in line”, adds the engineer.
Aprilia RS-GP, Aleix Espargaro
Photo by: German Garcia Casanova
Avoid “spying”
The curious aspect of this new aerodynamic package, in which this small wing at the height of the front tire stands out, is that it was already ready to be tested in the tests last February in Malaysia.
“We had brought him to Sepang and everything was ready to put him on the bike,” Aleix Espargaro explained to Motorsport.com on Friday. “But in the end we decided not to bring it out so that they wouldn’t copy us,” he said referring to the rest of the teams and thus avoiding the classic espionage in the paddock.
In fact, Aprilia has also worked on the rear wing above the tail, a totally different solution from that of the Ducati and arranged horizontally like that of a car. This solution has been imitated by Yamaha, even if the piece continues to be kept in a box.
“We know Yamaha made a wing like ours, that lets us know what they’re after,” explained an Aprilia engineer. “The Ducati wing, in the shape of a crest, is to improve stability when stopping the bike. The horizontal wing, on the other hand, is intended to find a better pace when cornering, which is what Yamaha is looking for,” he underlined.
At the moment we will have to wait to see the wing of the M1, a solution for gaining pace when cornering, a virtue that this bike had but which has been lost in recent years.
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