The rain that fell in Mugello on Monday ruined Maverick Vinales’ plans. The Spaniard was Aprilia’s best rider in Sunday’s Italian GP but, despite lowering his race time by as much as 35″ compared to 2023, he was unable to do better than the eighth place finish. But above all, he He was the only one on the entire grid to mount the medium tire on the rear, with the fear that the soft wouldn’t be able to hold up to the end due to the degradation and overheating problems generated by his RS-GP.
It was precisely on this that he wanted to focus on the day of the official tests, but for now this work will have to start again at the end of the month, when the MotoGP will return to the track in Assen after three Sunday stops imposed by the postponement of the first edition of the Kazakhstan Grand Prix to month of September.
“To be honest, I think it was the best of the bike. Obviously I had a race where we rode fast and consistently, but in the end I was eighth. Clearly, with the way we ride, I expected more in terms of results. But for the rest, we are making steps forward. Unfortunately today we couldn’t try many things, but we have to take a step, it’s important,” Vinales said when he met the media in the early afternoon on Monday.
“When we returned to Europe, many made steps forward, especially Ducati. Even though it seems like we had a good race, we were eighth. I don’t know if it’s an occasional thing like at Mugello, but we also did at Le Mans a good race and I was fifth. We’ll see in Assen, which I think is a track that suits our bike better. They’ve made a step, we need to understand how.”
According to Maverick, the gap that has been created with the Ducatis in the latest outings, after they had been the star performer in Austin, is due precisely to the issue of tire management: “I think one point is the fact that they manage to make the tire last soft tire until the end with a lot of performance. This is a sign… We have to see if we put a lot of temperature on the rear tire or not. Unfortunately today we couldn’t understand anything, but in Assen we have to work on the fact that after five laps with the soft I feel a lot of heat and I start to lose grip when entering the corners.
Several colleagues of the driver from Roses complain about the fact that the new rear tire introduced this year by Michelin offers a lot of grip, but because of this it also tends to “push” a lot on the front, generating understeer. However, Maverick explained that in his case, having more grip is actually an advantage.
“Our new bike is a little more loaded on the front, compared to last year we lose a little more rear contact when braking, especially in the corner. So for us it’s good that the edge has more grip, but I think that we still have to work to make it last. We push the tire a lot and overheat it a lot. In Qatar I was very off with the balance, but with a small change it’s now good and I can put the bike on the front row.”
“In terms of pace, we need to improve tire wear, which is very high and generates high temperatures. I can’t be a hammer like I did in Austin. On the flying lap we manage to get the most out of the tyre, but when the pressure Come on, we’re struggling. We need to work with the rear suspension, I think we can do a good job. We’ll try at Assen.”
Maverick Vinales, Aprilia Racing
Photo by: MotoGP
Small progress with the wet track
If nothing else, the rain was also useful in part, because during the Jerez weekend the Aprilias had struggled a lot on the wet track. It is no coincidence that Vinales worked especially hard on the water, finding important answers, because it was enough for him to work on the electronics, and in particular on the engine braking, to improve the situation.
“It was also important to run in the wet, because in Jerez we had some problems. We needed to try different settings and strategies on the electronics. We will definitely have some wet races, so I think it was positive because we have an idea of the path to take to the next occasions in the wet,” he explained.
“I only tried the electronics, because I think we were using the wrong strategy especially on engine braking. The balance is right, sometimes I lost the rear on entry and I couldn’t maintain the speed in the corners. In Jerez the problem was that, today we tried some changes and it seems that things have improved.”
“We thought, and today we had confirmation, that it was a question of electronics. Not only here, but also in the past, sometimes I had zero feeling when entering corners. As soon as we changed the engine braking strategy, the feeling returned. I locked the rear wheel and I was able to have speed in the corners. Today we confirmed this, I was able to lean the bike in the corners, but from a mechanical point of view we have good grip in the wet”, he concluded.
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