Espargaro: Young riders shunning Aprilia MotoGP project gave me extra motivation

On his 200th MotoGP start, Espargaro made history by claiming the first win for Aprilia in the modern era of the premier class at the Argentina Grand Prix – while also ending a drought for himself dating 283 races back to his 125cc debut in 2004.

Espargaro joined Aprilia from Suzuki in 2017 and has been instrumental in developing the RS-GP into the front-running motorcycle it now is.

In recent years Aprilia has tried and failed to snag top MotoGP talents in Cal Crutchlow and Andrea Dovizioso, while at the end of 2020 – when Andrea Iannone was handed a four-year doping ban – it attempted to court several leading Moto2 names, including Marco Bezzecchi and Joe Roberts.

When asked by Autosport what it meant to prove doubters of himself and Aprilia wrong with his Argentina win, Espargaro says he was spurred on by young riders rejecting offers to join the marque.

“I remember perfectly when I was in Suzuki with Maverick [Vinales] and I finished there because I was not competitive enough, Aprilia called me and I was obviously not on top of the list of fast riders at all,” he recalled.

“But nobody was going there, the fast riders didn’t want to go there, nobody believed in the project. So, from the first day I said ‘I will try to make this bike shine, I will try to take this bike to the top’.

“I didn’t expect it would take me so long, but finally we are achieving it.

“Even three years ago we tried to convince some young riders to come and they say ‘I will prefer to wait for another bike’.

“So, this made me more hungry, it gave me extra motivation because I said ‘Ok, you will remember this day as not a good day in your life when you say no to Aprilia’.

“Still, there’s a lot of work to do, but I think the people – especially the young riders – start to see the Aprilia project more serious, as an option for the future. I think this is great for the sport.”