Aprilia Riders Raise Heat-Related Health Concerns - 'You Cannot Breathe'

Saajan Jogia | Sep 12, 2024

Apr 14, 2024; Austin, TX, USA; Maverick Vinales (12) of Spain and Aprilia Racing leads Pedro Acosta (31) of Spain and Red Bull Tech3 GASGAS and Enea Bastianini (23) of Italy and Ducati Lenovo Team during the MotoGP Grand Prix of The Americas at Circuit of The Americas. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Maverick Vinales, Aleix Espargaro, and Miguel Oliveira raised concerns about the unbearable heat from their Aprilia RS-GP during the San Marino MotoGP Sprint race last weekend. The issue brought back memories of last year's struggles, particularly when the extreme heat forced Vinales to retire from the Thai Grand Prix in October.

The excessive heat spewing from the bike resurfaced troubling memories from the 2023 season when Espargaro battled breathing difficulties and exhaustion due to the bike's excessive heat. Despite the team's assurances that the problem had been resolved, the factory's mid-season aerodynamic upgrade seems ineffective, with riders still concerned after struggling in the 29-degree air temperature during Saturday's half-distance Sprint race. Speaking to the media, the Spaniard said:

“Today we suffered a lot with the heat.

“Maverick and I arrived at the limit in the last part of the race. It’s really strange because it wasn’t that hot.

“The new fairing looks even worse than the old one in terms of the temperature. I’m a little bit worried for the next races.”

He added:

“The heat is amazing.

“And if the heat comes to me, it also comes to the wheels, the brakes, the temperature of the oil, the forks, to all the hardware of the bike. it’s something we need to improve."

Only one European round remains, the second event at Misano, before the season enters its flyaway stretch, featuring races in Indonesia, Japan, Australia, Thailand, and Malaysia. Vinales, who finished eleventh during the Sprint, said that the upcoming "hot" races are a concern for him. He added:

“I'm really concerned about the hot [flyaway] races.

"Because Austria was difficult to finish and here the Sprint was hard to finish. The problem is that when you are on the straight, the heat goes to your neck. So after 5 or 6 laps, you start to don't breathe.

“Mandalika [Indonesia] is different, because you don't have a long straight, so you are out of the bike.

“But in Buriram, which has long straights… I don't know what we are going to do.

“It is tough. I don't know for the other riders of Aprilia, but I never struggled with this [before], and now I am struggling a lot. Especially to breathe, there is one moment that you start to lose focus because you cannot breathe.”

He noted that “the problem is also that sometimes in the practice you cannot feel it, it’s when you go to the race."

Lastly, Oliveira also acknowledged the intense heat but revealed that it elevated the bike's grip levels. He said:

“It was really hard to get to the finish as the heat that we get from the bike is intense - the bike became much more physical with this [high] grip and it was just really hot."