The second chance that could safeguard Britain's MotoGP future

Aprilia confirmed to Autosport on Tuesday that its test rider Bradley Smith would replace Andrea Iannone while the Italian awaits a decision on his appeal to have his doping ban overturned.

The outcome of Iannone's appeal against his 18-month suspension - dating back to October when the illegal steroid was first found in his system following a drugs test at the Malaysian Grand Prix - with the Court of Arbitration of Sport is not expected until August. With the coronavirus-delayed 2020 MotoGP season starting with a double-header at Jerez on 19 and 26 July, Smith's sudden promotion was inevitable.

Admittedly, Aprilia's choices were limited. Faced between picking Smith, who has been testing the RS-GP for over a year and had a key hand in developing the radical 2020 bike, or fellow test rider Lorenzo Savadori, the unproven ex-World Superbike racer, there was only going to be one option.

The timing of Smith's promotion, however, could prove to be very opportune. It's no secret that the future of MotoGP's sole full-time British representative, Cal Crutchlow, is in serious doubt. Pol Espargaro's move to the factory Honda team in 2021 - as first revealed by Autosport earlier this month - will mean reigning Moto2 champion Alex Marquez will almost certainly be shuffled into the LCR garage with full support from HRC.

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Given that Takaaki Nakagami's LCR team is set up specifically for a Japanese rider, acting as a bridge between the premier class and Dorna Sports' Asia Talent Cup (also backed by Idemitsu), and Honda team boss Alberto Puig isn't exactly Crutchlow's biggest fan, his HRC days are numbered.

This is a huge shame, not least because Crutchlow had pretty much confirmed his intentions to continue his career having previously stated that his current Honda contract would most likely be his last.

And there aren't exactly many places on the grid where Crutchlow can seek refuge. Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki and Ducati have no room at their respective inns, and KTM looks to have filled its Espargaro-shaped void with outgoing Ducati rider Danilo Petrucci.

Realistically, this leaves Aprilia as Crutchlow's only realistic hope of a full-time race ride next season.

But with that comes two problems. The first being Aprilia's (at least public) unwavering support for Iannone, who it fully believes is innocent having been ruled to have ingested the steroid through contaminated food.

"We need Bradley to make a mental switch to go from test driver to race driver. For now, he is doing very well and I must say that I am very happy" Massimo Rivola

And Aprilia has made no secret (again, at least publicly) of its desire to maintain its current line-up of Espargaro - who recently re-signed for two more years - and Iannone, whom Espargaro said earlier this year was needed to help him get into the podium battle on the RS-GP.

Though Iannone does have past precedent to argue in relation to cases of accidental substance ingestion being overturned, the fact is he still took a performance enhancing drug - and did so from food at a Malaysian hotel likely populated by many other riders. Though CAS won't likely cow down to the World Anti-Doping Agency's demands to have the ban extended to the maximum four years, it's also unlikely Iannone will be back on a MotoGP grid again.

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Understandably, Aprilia will likely put an offer in front of Crutchlow. But the second problem is the 34-year-old probably won't want to move from a race-winning package, where he knows - and with which has proven - he can be Honda's second-best asset, to essentially start from scratch at Aprilia this late into his career.

In the short-term, Smith makes absolute sense as Iannone's replacement. With time not of the essence, it will give Aprilia a decent window to evaluate him for a longer-term racing future across the provisional 13-race calendar.

The 29-year-old didn't exactly set the world on fire in his four wildcard outings last year, failing to reach the points in the two he finished and crashing out of the race - including into Espargaro at Catalunya - in the other two.

But, he has completed a lot of laps on the new Aprilia already this year through winter testing, and has been racking up the miles at Misano this month as part of some private running with the Noale factory.

On Tuesday, he lapped within a tenth of Espargaro's best laptime at the private Misano test, and this is keeping the boss very much happy.

"From a physical point of view, I found him very well prepared," Aprilia CEO Massimo Rivola told Autosport at Misano on Tuesday. "Today he did 75 laps, which on this track and with these temperatures is not bad at all.

"He is ready, then today was the first time he was riding with his partner and he managed to be close to a reference to Aleix. This motivated him even more.

"This is important, because we need Bradley to make a mental switch to go from test driver to race driver. For now, he is doing very well and I must say that I am very happy."

Iannone caused friction with Espargaro earlier in the year when he claimed the new Aprilia was developed with his guidance. Espargaro refuted this and seethed at the disrespect Iannone had shown him. Though he has since buried the hatchet, Iannone isn't exactly famous for keeping peace.

Smith, on the other hand, was a highly welcomed addition to Aprilia last year as test rider for Espargaro and already has a good rapport with the Espargaro clan, having partnered brother Pol at Tech3 and KTM, as well as at Yamaha when it won the Suzuka 8 Hours in 2015.

In the year that Aprilia has finally made a step into the top 10 with its new bike, it needs a pairing working seamlessly together.

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On top of that, Smith battled for the 2009 125cc title on an Aprilia (above) - ending up second in the standings and 63 points behind champion Julian Simon in a campaign in which Aprilia machinery either branded as such or as Derbis occupied the top seven slots in the points.

He's also proven capable of reaching the podium in MotoGP, having managed a second at the 2014 Australian Grand Prix and a third after staying out on slick tyres during a wet phase of the 2015 San Marino GP. He was also a title contender in last year's MotoE World Cup with the Sepang Racing Team's entry.

History shows KTM made a mistake in ditching Smith for Johann Zarco, and is paying the price to this day with the second of its original spearheads in Espargaro heading for the door this year

With so many miles on the new bike under his belt, and with potentially a full season of races coming his way, Smith could now be priming himself for a proper return to racing in MotoGP that looked pretty much impossible at the start of this silly season.

Should Crutchlow be forced out of a place on the grid for 2021, having Smith there instead would likely be fair trade off in Dorna's eye: with its British Talent Cup yet to produce any meaningful graduates and the slender presence of British stars in Moto2 and Moto3, maintaining a home attraction in the premier class for the next few years would buy time for this issue to work itself out.

History shows KTM made a mistake in ditching Smith for Johann Zarco, and is paying the price to this day with the second of its original spearheads in Espargaro heading for the door this year.

It's easy to see why KTM made the play for Zarco after his strong 2017 and '18 campaigns on the Tech3 Yamaha. But Smith did give KTM its first top 10 result of 2018, and was only five points and one place shy of Espargaro prior to the Spaniard's shock podium at a soaked Valencia GP.

The younger Espargaro brother is one of the grid's finest talents and his efforts at KTM have propelled the Austrian marque further than it reasonably could have hoped for in such a short space of time.

But it's not unreasonable to assume Smith would have had a similarly decent season last year had he been retained, and therefore it's also not unreasonable to assume that Smith will form a strong force with Aleix Espargaro for as long as he is racing this season.

Should that lead to a full-time return next year, it will be a well-deserved opportunity for a rider who deserves more credit than he has been given in recent years.