Presumably they only work on the inside, because the rider is leaning off the inside of the bike, so he’s away from the outside leg wing?
FS: You’re going into too much detail…
In the past, Aprilia sometimes struggled during weekends – they’d start well on a Friday, but then lose their way, so have you also improved the way of working in the garage?
FS: Yes, 100%, because apart from the motorcycle itself, the working system you have at the track is also very important. Several times in my life I’ve started a weekend listening to comments from riders who say, ‘This is the worst bike I’ve ever ridden,’ then they win the race on Sunday. This teaches you that even though you start the weekend in a really bad way, there’s always the margin to improve the details and have a really good bike on Sunday.
In our process now, we can say that usually we have quite good performance on Fridays, but how many times have we gone through Q1 into Q2 and then achieved really good success Sunday? That’s exactly the point. At recent races we have reached a good base, where we are only are touching the bike in a small group of details.
The first iteration of the leg wings, plus new seat hump aero, at Silverstone
This is so important because changing the bike less means the riders know the bike better, so they know what it’s going to do before it does it.
FS: Absolutely. One of the targets, apart from improving the stability of the bike, was improving the stability of the performance over the season, so there’s the base of the bike and there’s what you have to do in the preparation for each weekend.
This is absolutely important, because if you start the weekend at 20% [of maximum performance], maybe you will arrive at 80% on Sunday, but if you start at 70%, it’s much easier to arrive at 95%.
For sure the way we work at the track is part of this process, because now we arrive at each track knowing exactly what we are looking for, relative to that track.
Sometimes when I first came to Aprilia, I was pushing the technicians in several areas [of performance], whereas now they arrive at each track and they already know what they have to do, so the system has improved a lot, together with a realistic approach.
At the start of the year I asked you if data is now more important than rider feedback and you replied, “If it’s not data, it’s merely opinion.” Obviously you need to mix both together, but I wanted to know about the feedback Bezzecchi [British GP winner and six further podiums] gives you, because this is his first year in a factory team, so this is this first time he’s worked with factory engineers.
FS: I’ve worked in MotoGP for almost a quarter of a century, and for me Marco is in the top five – he gives incredible feedback.
The second iteration of the leg wings plus new seat-hump aero
Who are the others?
FS: I think Andrea Dovizioso is probably the best – super analytical. Also Valentino [Rossi]. Marco could be in the top four.
I think that when many people think about a rider like Marco, he looks like a super-funny, creative guy. But compared to many other riders that are super-calm, then a bit chaotic and super-aggressive when they put on their helmets, Marco is the other way around. Several times in debriefs, I’ve thought that this is the VR46 imprinting. Probably they taught him to stay focused, work on the details and transfer information in the proper way.
This year is the first time Marco has worked with a proper factory team, so in the past sometimes he had a bike that wasn’t suited to his riding characteristics, whereas now we make the bike around Marco’s needs. He’s super-good at transferring information and also at creating a package that’s versatile. It’s the same working with Raul [Fernández, winner of the Australian GP].
Bezzecchi still seems to be on a steep upward curve, both in his riding and his mentality, like he’s not at the top yet.
FS: It’s difficult to say but maybe we have a typical Pareto Principle situation: with 20% of effort, you obtain 80% of the result, but to obtain the last 20% of the result, you have to dedicate 80% [more] work.
With Marco, I cannot tell you exactly where he is, if he’s still on the growth part of his curve, or if he will soon arrive on a sort of plateau.
With the bike, how much margin do we have? We have something of a margin [to the fastest bikes], so we are developing, we are thinking, we are putting forward ideas. Obviously we don’t want to make mistakes, because it’s clear that the base at which we’ve arrived now is more than acceptable.
Mid-season, you updated the Trackhouse bikes to the latest factory spec, because now it’s so important to have data from four identical bikes. And the more data you have, the more help artificial intelligence can be in helping you sift through all that data, so how much are you using AI?
FS: We are approaching AI and we are investigating how we can exploit this kind of new technology to improve our performance, but we are approaching it, not using it.
Fernández made history at Phillip Island – Aprilia’s first indie winner
Michelin
It seems that one big thing AI can do is look at a vast pool of data and tell you what’s of interest to you and what isn’t.
FS: Yes, because clearly we have much more information than we can analyse and extract valuable data conclusions from. AI is something that can help in the future, but believe me, it’s super- complicated because you have to prepare all the data and then you have to do the ingestion phase, when you are teaching the system, so it’s a really long process and we don’t have time. At the moment it’s something that’s very interesting, which we are looking at.
What are you expecting from the 2027 bikes? They’ll have smaller engines, be slightly lighter, with less aero and no ride-height devices, so you must already have computer-modelled what they’ll be like.
FS: It’s difficult because we don’t know the most relevant part…
The tyres?
FS: Yes, but anyway it’s quite clear, we will have much less power. The crucial point in the first year at least will be to find again the balance of the bike, because now, with the power we have and the behaviour of the Michelin tyres, basically we know where the centre of gravity should be, how the aero should be and so on.
From 2027 we won’t have the aerodynamics we have now, we will have less power and we won’t have the devices, so obviously the crucial point will be to find a new balance, a new compromise, that suits the level of power, aero etc.
Bikes will have narrower bodywork and the fairing nose will be moved behind the front wheel axle, reducing aero load on the front tyre, so do you have any estimate of how much less downforce you will have?
FS: I believe we will have between 30 and 50% less.
Wow! Presumably that will help the racing, because less downforce means smaller aero wakes behind the bikes and less dirty air.
FS: It’s not so obvious, but if you mean the problems regarding overtaking, I think it will be easier, definitely.
Aprilia celebrates its first win with Bezzecchi, at Silverstone in May
Aprilia
How happy will you be to say goodbye to ride-height devices?
FS: I think it’s the correct decision. We probably should have done so before because we often speak about environmental sustainability, but in racing we must also think about economic sustainability.
One of the manufacturers led the way with this technology, then the others copied, so basically the performance levelled again and now it’s just a cost matter. When someone comes up with a new idea, then the others catch up after a few years, it’s in the interest of the championship that we should say, OK, now it’s banned.
I also believe that during starts, if we don’t have holeshot devices, probably the riders will be much more able to decide their line, because now they are completely stuck. So I think it’s the right choice to ban the devices.
The cost of developing new engines is crazy, so do you think it was necessary to drop to 850cc? Or would it better to manage performance with tyres, which is basically a zero-cost option?
FS: At Mugello we are reaching 366km/h [227mph], which is something you cannot reduce via different tyres. You have to reduce the power or do other things. Reducing the displacement is the best way, because it’s easier to control. There are other ways, for example, reducing fuel capacity or restricting fuel flow.
