Aprilia “understood” what it was missing in 2024

Aprilia has had up-and-down results this year. The only brand capable of beating Ducati – in the two Austin races as well as in the Portimão and Barcelona sprints – ultimately had to settle for third place in the constructors' championship, behind KTM, paying for its lack of consistency.

“We are quite satisfied with the first part of the season”underlined Paolo Bonora, manager of the Aprilia team, on the official MotoGP website, all these successes having been achieved in the first six weekends of the season, a period when Ducati was not yet exploiting the new rear tire. “We have had many, many, many podiums.”

“Apart from the Ducati, we were the only ones to win a long race. We had set a lot of goals during the season and we achieved this one. Probably in the second part of the season we lost something .”

Aprilia has in fact lost its footing, having difficulty developing its motorcycle in the right direction. After several years of progression from the back of the grid to the fight for the top places, the Noale firm has stagnated somewhat but its recruit Jorge Martín is already convinced that it will do “the biggest leap forward” for several years in 2025.

Bonora believes in any case to have identified the main elements to correct: “When you reach a certain level, it’s a lot harder to make bigger progress but for sure we understood why we are missing something compared to our rivals.”

Several of Aprilia's weaknesses are clearly visible. The bike often overheats when the temperature rises and like Ducati's other rivals, the use of the rear tire introduced by Michelin this year still poses a problem, especially during braking phases.

This inconsistency when braking is precisely one of the main areas on which Aprilia wants to work, as well as its difficulties in progressing as much as Ducati during the course of a weekend, an aspect which could be alleviated in 2025 with fewer Desmosedici entered , which will limit the sharing of information.

“During the weekends, we particularly need to improve data analysis and provide faster responses to pilot comments”estimated Bonora. “We know we need to improve in heavy braking and it’s not in any particular area, but we need to improve the package.”

To work on these elements, Aprilia wants to rely on new perspectives. The departure of its technical director, Romano Albesiano, for Honda has become an opportunity to recruit Fabiano Sterlacchini, from KTM, and further changes are planned. We can naturally add the arrivals of world champion Jorge Martín and Marco Bezzecchi. Paolo Bonora welcomes this new era.

“We have to progress to achieve these performances so currently we are at a stage where we are replacing a lot of people in the team. There will also be a new technical director. I would also like to thank Romano Albesiano for all the years spent with us and I would like to say welcome to Fabiano. We are happy that he is joining our project and we look forward to next year.