Aprilia And Ducati Work on Track and in the wind tunnel and what toyota has to do with it
Categories: MotoGP
After the season finale in Valencia, the MotoGP stars and their teams said goodbye to the winter break – but that does not mean that the work is over.
With the start of the winter break, regular drivers are prohibited from testing new prototypes for 2023. Test drivers, however, are not affected. That’s why the first work for the coming season started in Jerez on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Maverick Vinales during the Valencia test – Image provided by Motorsport Images
Aprilia and Ducati had rented the track in Jerez de la Frontera this week and tested various new configurations.
Despite the often times miserable weather conditions, Aprilia had time for lap numbers in the triple digits. For test rider Lorenzo Savdori, the focus was mainly on working on new electronics configurations.
At the same time, Aprilia worked on another important package for the 2023 season. An unusual partner for MotoGP stepped into the breach – Toyota Motorsport Europe.
The Japanese are the proud owners of a wind tunnel at their Cologne facility and regularly rent it out to race teams from all over Europe. Even the F1 racing team of McLaren used the Toyota wind tunnel, as did Apilia this week.
All the regular riders of the Aprilia-MotoGP teams were involved. For satellite team riders Miguel Oliveira and Raul Fernandez, the focus laid on optimizing their seating position as they are new to the Aprilia project.
Maverick Vinales and Aleix Espargaro had the privilege of sitting on wind tunnel models of the 2023 prototypes and working on aerodynamics.
However, the first results of the work are not likely to be seen by the public until February when MotoGP will be back in Sepang for the 2023 shakedown tests.
For Aprilia, test rider Savadori will ride the shakedown test from February 5 to 7. The regular riders will then come into play the following weekend.
