Espargaro: Aprilia knows what areas to improve on

Aleix Espargaro was left unconvinced by a new frame for his Aprilia but is eager to continue the experiment at next week’s Jerez test and is certain “we know exactly what areas to improve on” having matched his feedback with new team-mate Andrea Iannone.

The Aprilia rider focused his Valencia MotoGP test programme running a 2018-specification Aprilia equipped with a new frame, along with a revised engine specification, aimed at delivering stability under braking but was underwhelmed by the results at Circuit Ricardo Tormo.

“I tried a new frame and it was not super good, it didn’t really convince me,” Espargaro said. “I will try again in Jerez and we will keep working with different specification engine that I tried yesterday and it was slightly better so we will keep working on this one.

“But if nothing else we know exactly what areas we have to improve on. I talked a little bit in the lunch break with Andrea and he had similar problems to me so this is positive.

“We were looking for more stability on the brakes. Before we release the brakes we put the front tyre in crisis and also last season it was my problem. We were looking for better stability with the new frame but we didn’t get any new stability and I lost a little bit in turning so I just need two runs on this chassis. I will try in Jerez but the first impression is so-so.”

Espargaro, who ended day two 10th on the timesheet with a best lap of 1m 31.400s and 0.643s off pace-setter Maverick Vinales on the factory Yamaha, is also keen to find electronics breakthroughs on engine braking to help his deceleration demands working with an improved chassis for 2019.

“It is very important we work on the engine braking as it looked like we could not stop the bike as we wished,” he said. “For the moment this year every time increased engine braking we had locking on the rear tyre so it was the limit.

“So for next year I hope the engineers, by geometry, they can give us better weight on the rear and by electronics we can improve the engine braking.

“I think Jerez is an even more complete track than this. For me to go to Jerez now it is interesting and even if it is really late in the year which means we could have a really cold day but anyway for me Jerez is better as a test track than this.”