Speaking with Motorsport.com a few days ago, the Mattighofen manufacturer’s top executive recognized Aprilia’s leap in quality and embodied it in Massimo Rivola, the Noale-based company’s CEO of the racing division.
Rivola arrived in Aprilia ahead of the 2019 season, after a long experience in teams such as Ferrari and Toro Rosso. In a process that has yet to be completed, the Italian engineer recruited the specialists he knew from that previous period, focusing primarily on the areas of aerodynamics and tire degradation management, two of the key themes of F1 today.
“Aprilia has brought the F1 experience. The new boss (Rivola) is very intelligent, I like him a lot. He came from F1 and has brought with him a lot of experience in the field of aerodynamics,” Pierer told the writer of these lines.
Far from bothering him, the growth shown by Aprilia in the last two seasons motivates him, especially as he adds another European manufacturer to his long personal crusade against the Japanese.
“I am very happy that in 2022 there will be three European manufacturers against two Japanese, as Suzuki is leaving. I like that there is competition between the European manufacturers. I like to beat the Japanese brands, it is very simple,” added the controversial. KTM boss.
Aware of the above, the Austrian has decided to follow the same path, which in his case is very useful given his close relationship with Red Bull. In addition to being the sponsor of the official KTM team, the energy drink brand is also the owner of the team that won the F1 world championship last year with Max Verstappen.
As it happens, in addition to the level reached by the Honda engine, another of its great strengths is aerodynamics, with a genius like Adrian Newey at the helm of this department.
“Next year we will increase our commitment to F1 staff. Luckily we have a long-standing relationship with Red Bull, who are a winning team, so we know which door to knock on,” admitted the man. business which, according to Forbes, manages personal assets of 1.2 billion euros.
“Red Bull has hundreds of highly experienced aerodynamic engineers. This will be one of the keys to 2023,” said Pierer.
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