Even in 2024, the heat in Thailand and Malaysia will cause major problems for Aprilia – Aleix Espargaro suggests that his soon-to-be ex-employer rethink
Aprilia has only marginally more championship points than the struggling manufacturers Yamaha and Honda have managed to score in the last two MotoGP weekends in Thailand and Malaysia.
A glance at the MotoGP manufacturers’ standings for 2024 shows the following as the sum of the sprints and the Grand Prix in Buriram and Sepang: 18 points for Aprilia, 15 points for Yamaha, 13 points for Honda. On the previous race weekends of the season, Aprilia’s points advantage over the Japanese manufacturers was significantly greater, except for a few individual cases.
The problem for Aprilia in the final phase of the current season was once again the heat. “In the past few seasons, we have suffered greatly from the high temperatures,” Aleix Espargaro recalls the overseas tours in the MotoGP seasons 2022 and 2023.
When Espargaro says that they suffered a lot at Aprilia, “I’m not just talking about the physical condition of us riders. I’m also talking about all the hardware on the bike, so fuel pump, tires, brakes and so on. The engine is really lame in this heat.”
“In the sprint in Australia, for example, I overtook a lot of drivers,” said Espargaro, recalling the cool Saturday at Phillip Island, when the air temperature was only 14 degrees Celsius under cloudy skies and windy conditions.
By comparison, the air temperature in Buriram (Thailand) and Sepang (Malaysia) was 30 degrees Celsius during the sprint. During the Malaysian Grand Prix, 34 degrees Celsius was measured. “In such temperatures, nothing works for us,” complains Espargaro.
According to the Spaniard, the Aprilia engineers themselves do not know whether the packaging – i.e. the way in which the individual components are installed in the motorcycle – is the problem.
“It is certainly not helping that aerodynamics are taking over and attempts are being made to close all possible openings. But that’s a problem we’ve had since the first year,” says Espargaro.
In this context, the veteran remembers the only MotoGP pre-season test to date in Thailand. That took place at the Buriram International Circuit in February 2018. At the time, Espargaró and Scott Redding were driving for the official Aprilia racing team, which at the time was the Gresini team.
“Our first test with Scott Redding in Thailand was a nightmare in this regard. And since then, we have not been able to make any progress in this area,” complains Espargaro with regard to Aprilia’s heat problem.
Espargaro advises his soon-to-be-former employer: ”For the future, Aprilia absolutely has to work on this. The base of the bike isn’t that bad. But if they want to improve, then [heat management] has to be the first area.”
Incidentally, the first MotoGP pre-season test in spring 2025 will be in Thailand (February 12-13 in Buriram) for the first time since 2018. The other pre-season test will take place in Malaysia the week before (February 5-7 in Sepang). An official launch event for the 2025 MotoGP season with all teams is scheduled for February 9 in Thailand’s capital Bangkok between the two tests.
