Aprilia Chief Asks Team To Adopt 'Pragmatic' Approach To 2025 Rider Lineup Problem

Saajan Jogia | Dec 29, 2024

Apr 14, 2024; Austin, TX, USA; Maverick Vinales (12) of Spain and Aprilia Racing rides during the MotoGP Grand Prix of The Americas at Circuit of The Americas. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Aprilia’s racing manager Paolo Bonora has asked his team to keep an open mind and follow a "pragmatic" approach next year when dealing with both new riders in 2025, who come from Ducati after riding superior MotoGP machinery. He believes that meeting their expectations will be a challenging task for the team.

2024 world champion Jorge Martin and Marco Bezzecchi come with significant experience on Ducati's GP23 and GP24 MotoGP bikes, and Aprilia is expected to capitalize on their inputs to enhance the RS-GP. Bonora has asked his team to prioritize their demands as the team will have to rise to their levels of performance.

Aprilia was the only non-Ducati team this year to have won a race, courtesy of Maverick Vinales, who won the Americas Grand Prix. Aprilia could use its strong points and build on that with Martin and Bezzecchi. Speaking on the challenge ahead with the two new riders, Bonora told MotoGP, as reported by Crash.net:

“It’s going to be a very challenging year for us, because we’ll have two fast, young and very talented riders.

“There’s no doubt about it. The whole team is excited, and we’ll have to be very pragmatic to understand what their demands will be and have an open mind in understanding that they’re probably coming from the best bike on the grid.

“We’ll have to improve to get that performance.”

Aprilia started the 2024 season on a high note, but it hasn't been able to diagnose the sudden drop in performance it experienced in the second half of the season. However, Bonora hinted that the team understood the reason for the slump in performance and identified areas of improvement. He added:

“We’re quite satisfied with the first part of the season.

“We got a lot of podiums and, apart from Ducati, we were the only ones to win a GP.

“We set a lot of goals at the beginning of the year and we reached them. We probably lost something in the second part.

“When you get to a certain level, it’s more difficult to take big steps forward. But we definitely understood why we missed something compared to our rivals.

“We have to improve our data analysis and respond faster to the comments of the riders during the weekend.

“We know that we need to improve in hard braking. It’s not about intervening in any particular area but making progress on our package.”