How MotoGP's underdogs shed that tag in Argentina

In the run-up to the Indonesian GP, after Pol and Aleix Espargaro crossed the finish line third and fourth in Qatar, separated by nine tenths of a second, the elder of the brothers was asked who was going to be the first of the two to win in the premier class. "It's going to be me", Aleix answered confidently.

Until last Sunday, Espargaro the elder had accumulated 199 races in MotoGP - while his brother had started 139 - without stepping on the top step of the podium. The Aprilia rider put an end to this streak, vindicating the hours of tireless work done by himself and Aprilia - the Italian marque finally leaving behind the label of 'losing team' that has haunted it since its return to the top class in a hasty manner in 2015 with Gresini Racing.

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The Piaggio Group brand's arrival in MotoGP came as a result of Gresini's need for bikes for his privateer structure after its deal with Honda came to an end. Aprilia had set itself the goal of returning to MotoGP in 2016 as a factory entrant, but the regulations of the championship at the time obliged any constructor who wanted to enter MotoGP to do so in association with one of the teams with a seat of its own.

With some improvisation, Gresini and Aprilia signed an agreement to start the 2015 season with Marco Melandri and Alvaro Bautista as riders, the late Gresini himself as sporting director and Romano Albesiano as technical manager, starting a relationship that ended abruptly in December 2020, when both parties announced their definitive separation for 2022.

The arrival of Massimo Rivola as CEO at the end of 2018, coming from Formula 1, where he held sporting management positions at Minardi, Toro Rosso and Ferrari, was a turning point in Aprilia's history. The Italian executive began to cut ties with Gresini, strengthened the technical structure of the Noale racing department, signed staff with F1 experience and bet on aerodynamics.

"Rivola's arrival raised Aprilia's level, it became a more professional structure and brought in experienced technicians, also an F1 aerodynamicist, to work in a field where rivals were betting very heavily," an in-house engineer explains to Autosport.

In 2021, Rivola focused on team management, while Albesiano focused solely and exclusively on the technical development of the RS -GP, with the freedom of being the only team to enjoy full concessions in the championship, a condition that they will lose this year with one more victory, or two podiums.

Aleix Espargaro, Aprilia Racing

Photo by: MotoGP

The third leg of the project, and perhaps the most important, has been the tireless work of Aleix Espargaro in the development of the bike. The Catalan rider arrived at Aprilia in 2017, after unexpectedly - at least for him - losing his seat at Suzuki. His first years at the Noale house were not easy: "It has been a very difficult road," he acknowledged this Sunday. "There was a turning point a couple of years ago.

"But if there is one thing that is certain is that I have never thrown in the towel, I have always worked and always believed in this project no matter how bad the results were. I think I have shown Aprilia that they have never had a harder working rider than me, and I am very happy that we have achieved it."

It was a job that was not always backed up by the recognition Aleix felt he deserved, seeing himself constantly compared to other riders who had arrived at Aprilia.

"Every time a new team-mate arrives people think he will go faster than me. And when another one arrives, the same thing. Bradley Smith came from being fifth in the world with [Tech3] Yamaha. Then Scott Redding, who was Moto2 champion [runner-up in 2013], or Andrea Iannone, who had won races with Ducati... I've beaten very fast riders," Aleix recalled in Indonesia last month, when he was still the only rider on the MotoGP grid who had never won a grand prix at any level.

"If the twins had not been born, and no doubt it has been difficult with my daughter, maybe I would not be here, I would not have continued running because I would not have had that positive energy that they transmit to me. Especially the first and second year after they were born, which were very difficult for me at Aprilia," Aleix Espargaro

It was there, precisely, where Aprilia informed the Spaniard of its intention to renew him for next season, an offer that the rider had been waiting for months and that took a long time to arrive, so much so that it had created some discomfort in Aleix. A continuity that now seems clear, but that four months ago made the rider himself doubt.

"Everything I get is thanks to my wife. The stability she gives me is immense. Some time ago I told her: 'Laura, I'm not happy, I'm 18th in every race and I'm hurting myself, let's do something else'. And I talked about it with Aprilia, but Rivola arrived and changed Noale quite a lot," confessed the rider last Sunday.

It was a complex time for Aleix and his family, with the birth of his twins, Max and Mia, and the latter's delicate health problems.

Race winner Aleix Espargaro, Aprilia Racing

Photo by: MotoGP

"It brought us closer together. For any father his family is the most important thing, but in my case even more so, I am a very passionate person, I am super attached to them, they are my strength and motivation," Espargaro added.

"If the twins had not been born, and no doubt it has been difficult with my daughter, maybe I would not be here, I would not have continued running because I would not have had that positive energy that they transmit to me. Especially the first and second year after they were born, which were very difficult for me at Aprilia."

The arrival of his good friend Maverick Vinales has been another motivating factor for Espargaro and Aprilia. For him, it is another challenge to fight against a world champion (Vinales won the 2013 Moto3 crown) and race winner with Yamaha.

At Aprilia, with the arrival of a top rider in Vinales, it thought that it would raise the level of results and lower the almost exclusive dependence they had with Espargaro, making a call to other top riders who, until the arrival of Vinales, had systematically discarded the Noale project because they did not consider it a winner. This was made clear by Andrea Dovizioso, who signed a lucrative testing contract for two tests, but declined to become a Yamaha rider with RNF Racing - a partnership that is so far failing to deliver on the results accustomed to the three-time MotoGP championship runner-up.

"For Espargaro, there have been two turning points in recent months, the podium at Silverstone [in 2021], where he was unlocked and saw that he could fight to win, and the Mandalika weekend, a fortnight ago," an Aprilia technician assures this writer. "We changed the bike's set-up and everything improved. In Qatar, Aleix gave everything, the maximum, and could only be fourth. We had to change something to take a step further, and with the Indonesian set-up, we did it."

That opened the eyes of Rivola and Aprilia, Vinales could not raise the level, he rode and rode and on Sunday morning he asked the technicians to use Espargaro's set-up, which strengthened MotoGP's newest winner even more as the centre of the project.

Who will be the first Espargaro to win a MotoGP race? "It's going to be me," said Aleix. What he didn't say, then, was that he had already found the key, and at that moment he already knew that the Aprilia was ready to win. And so it has come to pass...

Race winner Aleix Espargaro, Aprilia Racing

Photo by: Aprilia Racing