After a long day this Tuesday, during the Official Test in Barcelona, Raúl Fernández appeared greatly relieved in front of the media to testify to the progress made by Aprilia throughout this day of testing, when he was the only rider from Noale not to discover the motorcycle for the first time.
After the departures of Maverick Viñales and Miguel Oliveira, and the retirement of Aleix Espargaro, only Raúl Fernández (Trackhouse Racing), will continue the adventure with Aprilia in 2025. This Tuesday, it was therefore for Jorge Martin and Marco Bezzecchi to discover their new machine, they who have until now only ridden Ducatis in MotoGP. Ai Ogura was supposed to discover MotoGP in general, having just been promoted to the premier category after his Moto2 title.
During this day of riding, which extended from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Raúl Fernández was the only one who could compare the progress of his machine. The Spaniard has worked extensively on the disturbing aspects of his RS-GP, particularly the electronics. On the evening of the Barcelona Test, he arrived in front of the media with a smile on his face, and the satisfaction of having solved a few problems.
“To be honest, now I'm destroyed, confides the latter after a day of work. It was a very positive day overall. We didn't have any [RS-GP] 25 spare in the box, so we focused a lot on the 23 and the 24 with a lot of stuff. For me, the 2024 was a little bit better, but we tried a lot of things on the bike. We worked on electronics a lot during the day, which was the worst thing for me in the last two years.
Today at the end I felt something different with the bike, continues Raúl Fernández. I feel like I can use my riding style more with the electronics, and that's one of the good things about today. It is certain that in the future we will still have problems with electronics, but now we have found a basis that we can use on almost all circuits. A base to work from. It was a very important day. »
©Michelin
While his collaboration with the Noale factory took on another dimension at the end of the season, when it became official that the latter was the only one to keep his seat with Aprilia, Raúl Fernández says he is confident for the future. The debut of Fabiano Sterlacchini in the team, as new technical director, also reassures him a lot.
“Now we have two or three people in the box, it was good to see them, especially on my side of the garage. So I'm happy with their arrival, ajoute encore Raúl Fernández.
For me it was a very positive day. After the race on Sunday, I was destroyed, and I was in my bed trying to cry like a child. But anyway, I can tell you that we have improved a lot with electronics. I see something different, and I think that in the future, with Fabiano, we can improve even more. »
“I don’t know the 2025 bike. I haven’t seen anything, I haven’t spoken with them. I was very, very focused on myself. I was trying to focus on electronics to find something” concludes the Trackhouse Racing driver ahead of winter.
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