Why the British GP was a triumph for MotoGP

Don’t worry, the headline isn’t a reference to Triumph extending its Moto2 engine supply deal for another three years – though it is nice to see a British company not seemingly being hit by the effects of Brexit. Nor is it in reference to the fact British fans were welcomed through the gates at Silverstone in their droves to line the circuit for the race’s return since the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the 2020 edition.

History was made on Sunday at Silverstone as Aleix Espargaro scored Aprilia’s first MotoGP podium of the modern era, which began back in 2002 with the introduction of the four-stroke formula. Having had to wait since the flag-to-flag Aragon GP back in 2014 when he was a Forward Racing Yamaha rider, and after months of feeling like he was close to breaking through on the Aprilia, Espargaro claimed third in completely normal circumstances after a last-lap duel with Ducati’s Jack Miller.

With Yamaha ace Fabio Quartararo dominating, Alex Rins (Suzuki) making his first visit to the podium in 2021, Espargaro and Miller third and fourth, Honda’s Pol Espargaro fifth and Brad Binder (KTM) completing the top six, yet more history was made. For the first time since 1972, six different manufacturers occupied the top six spots in a premier class race.

The differences between the 1972 Yugoslavian GP at the utterly bonkers Opatija street circuit on Croatia’s Adriatic coast and the 2021 British GP at Silverstone couldn’t be any starker.

On that day in 1972, Alberto Pagani won the race on his MV Agusta from Britain’s Chas Mortimer on a Yamaha and Paul Eickelberg on a Koenig. Guido Mandracci on a Suzuki, Bo Granath on a Husqvarna and Charlie Dobson aboard a Kawasaki completed the top six. The winning margin Pagani held that day was 1m42.6s, according to the MotoGP archive.

To put that into context, just 12.1s covered the top six in last Sunday’s British GP. That people still pine for ‘the good old days’ of motorcycle racing gets more baffling by the day.

Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

The reality is, MotoGP has never been as competitive as it is now. Seven riders have won in the first 12 races of 2021 on four different bikes – that follows from the nine who won in 2020. The 21.018s that covered the top 15 (the points scoring positions) last Sunday is the eighth-closest top 15 in history. Of the eight tightest top 15s in premier class history, four have come this year.

“It’s crazy the level of riders in MotoGP now, it’s the highest I’ve ever seen, it’s unbelievable how many [quick] riders we have in the grid,” Aleix Espargaro said after his Silverstone podium. “It’s not just a riders’ championship, it’s a manufacturers’ championship. I know how important it is for every manufacturer when they have a new device, when they need to develop something new. So, this is great because in the past if you wanted to win you could just win with Yamaha and Honda. Now looks like still all bikes are not the same, but all bikes are competitive.”

Between the 2010 Australian GP when Casey Stoner won on the factory Ducati and Austria 2016, when Andrea Iannone ended Ducati’s drought, 100 races had passed in MotoGP where only Yamaha or Honda won grands prix. In 2016 Ducati and Suzuki won races alongside Honda and Yamaha, with KTM eventually joining that group in 2020.

"There is nothing free in this sport. You need to invest, and this is what we did, and the RS-GP 21 is the highest on the stability side due to the downforce, also the geometry. So many things have been done in these last two years and now we are seeing the results" Aleix Espargaro

In 2016 Dorna Sports introduced the spec electronics that would level the playing field, while concession regulations to give a leg up to new and struggling marque’s boosted the grid’s competitiveness further. With new financial regulations for 2017 also helping satellite squads to buy better equipment – and actually helping Aprilia itself, given its tie-up with Gresini Racing - the MotoGP landscape changed dramatically.

All of this was born out of the CRT regulations of 2012, which boosted dwindling grid numbers by offering an affordable production-based platform for independent teams to race with. From here, the idea was to develop the technical regulations into the Open class in 2014, from which the spec electronics package would be based. In the space of 10 years MotoGP went from having three manufacturers on the grid to six, with all six now genuine podium contenders in normal conditions.

Aleix Espargaro, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini

Photo by: Dorna

Espargaro has been through a tough time since joining Aprilia from Suzuki in 2017. While that year’s package was solid, the RS-GP in ensuing years failed to make the steps forward it really ought to have. And after a particularly miserable 2019 season, Espargaro admits he was close to quitting.

But the influence of ex-Ferrari Formula 1 sporting director Massimo Rivola coming in as Aprilia CEO in 2019 has become hugely apparent in 2021.

“Since the arrival of Massimo Rivola, many things have changed in Noale [where Aprilia is based], the way we work, many new engineers have come,” Espargaro said. “There is nothing free in this sport. You need to invest, and this is what we did, and the RS-GP 21 is the highest on the stability side due to the downforce, also the geometry.

“We change the balance a little bit by also changing the position of the engine, so many things have been done in these last two years and now we are seeing the results. But this is the consequence of many small things that you change during the years.”

Espargaro’s podium form didn’t come out of the blue either. The veteran Spaniard has been knocking on the door in 2021 with his RS-GP, consistent top eight performances putting him just a few seconds out of rostrum touch on most occasions this season.

During the Silverstone weekend, Espargaro made the bold claim to Spanish media that he is one of the best three riders in MotoGP currently. With only two podiums from his 191 MotoGP race starts, it’s a comment many dismissed. But that self-belief has been a major driving force in Aprilia’s first podium of the modern era.

One thing that has masked Espargaro’s form throughout his MotoGP career has been sub-par machinery. His first Aprilia podium is something a full-circle moment for himself and for MotoGP. After a single, largely difficult season with Pramac Ducati in 2010, the CRT class offered Espargaro a chance to return to MotoGP full-time in 2012 with Aspar on the RSV4-based Aprilia ART machine.

Aleix Espargaro, Aspar ART Aprilia, 2012 British MotoGP

Photo by: Motorsport Images / Kevin Wood

Espargaro was top CRT runner in 12th in the standings that year, having amassed 74 points, and in 2013 he was comfortably the top CRT runner on 93 points in 11th in the standings – 52 clear of the next-best in class. His performances were sufficient to warrant Autosport to grant him a spot in our top 10 rider rankings at the end of the season. Moving to Forward Yamaha in 2014 on an Open class bike, Espargaro scored his first podium at Aragon in a madcap flag-to-flag event. He remains the only rider of the Open class era to score a rostrum.

He proved instrumental in Suzuki becoming a race-winner again when he joined the marque for 2015 to helm development, and has done the same at Aprilia.

What happens with Vinales at Aprilia is the next intriguing chapter in the Italian marque’s story. But for now, Espargaro’s Silverstone podium feels like the end of one for Aprilia

At the beginning of 2021, both Espargaro and Aprilia publicly admitted to the importance of this season. It’s the only marque this year allowed to freely develop its engines courtesy of it being a concession manufacturer.

PLUS: Why 2021 is Aprilia's most important MotoGP season

While for all intents and purposes it is a factory team, Aprilia will no longer run its operation in conjunction with Gresini from 2022. It needed a big result to begin life as a true factory squad, with that sentiment seemingly only heightened when Maverick Vinales elected to quit Yamaha at the end of 2021 back in June to join Aprilia. Vinales’ mind will certainly be more at ease this week as he makes his debut on the bike at a Misano test on Tuesday.

“Regarding Maverick, yes, obviously if somebody told you at the beginning of the season that you will finish with Yamaha and you will go to Aprilia, you will say it’s [like taking] 10 steps back,” Espargaro noted last Sunday. “But obviously the way he finished with Yamaha is not nice, but it’s not that bad because the Aprilia is a competitive bike.

“We’re still not at the level of the Yamaha, that’s for sure, but we are on the way and I think he will enjoy riding the Aprilia. Yeah, he will have to adapt because it’s a completely different story to Yamaha, but as I showed today the bike is on the way.”

Aleix Espargaro, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini, Maverick Vinales, Yamaha Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

What happens with Vinales at Aprilia is the next intriguing chapter in the Italian marque’s story. But for now, Espargaro’s Silverstone podium feels like the end of one for Aprilia, one that began at the dawn of the MotoGP era in 2002 with the unwieldy – and highly combustible – RS Cube, continued through a miserable return to MotoGP in 2015 after an 11-year hiatus with an RS-GP that was nothing more than a dolled-up RSV4 Superbike and ended with a genuine podium in MotoGP’s most competitive era.

PLUS: The "born bad" bike that was ahead of its time

For MotoGP, it is total vindication for the path that it took back in 2012 with the much-maligned CRT regulations to try to save the championship from declining health – and which, ultimately, has largely ensured it will survive long into the future.

Aleix Espargaro, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini

Photo by: Dorna