In an unexpected move, Aprilia has decided to replace Bradley Smith in the Aprilia Gresini MotoGP team with Lorenzo Savadori for the last three races of 2020.
Smith has been Aprilia’s main test rider for the past two seasons, and had stepped in to take the place of Andrea Iannone after the Italian was suspended for a doping offense.
Savadori, who has raced for Aprilia in WorldSBK in the past, and this year was crowned Italian CIV champion on board the RSV4, is Aprilia’s second test rider.
Andrea Iannone’s doping saga appears to be coming to an end.
In a press release issued today, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) announced that the court would issue its decision in mid-November on the two appeals lodged against Iannone’s 18-month ban for testing positive for drostanolone, handed down by the FIM International Disciplinary Court (CDI). Those appeals were heard on Thursday, October 15th.
The Aprilia Tuono V4 X is a limited edition, track only, version of the Noale’s hyper-naked bike…and of course it comes with MotoGP-inspired wings. It makes 218hp at the crank, weighs 366 lbs bone dry, costs €34,900, and only 10 bikes were going to be made.
Now, Aprilia tells us that production for the Aprilia Tuono V4 X is going to increase three-fold. That means 30 bikes will be produced, which would seem like good news if you were not one of the lucky 10 who first got a chance to own this unique motorcycle.
We still have some bad news, however. All 20 of those additional units are already spoken for.
Desmo Dovi is no more. The eight-year partnership between Andrea Dovizioso and Ducati Corse will come to an end when the flag falls after the last race of the 2020 MotoGP season.
The news was made official by Dovizioso’s manager Simone Battistella, after a final meeting with Ducati management to try to agree terms. Battistella told broadcaster Sky Italia that they had been unable to find common ground to continue.
Testing has concluded at the Misano private test, with a few changes to the riders present on Thursday. KTM skipped the final day, while a group of WorldSSP riders entered the fray.
Aleix Espargaro was the fastest rider on the final day, getting to within a couple of hundredths of Miguel Oliveira’s best time from the day before, demonstrating the potential of the 2020 Aprilia RS-GP.
Espargaro was happy with both the speed and the pace of the bike, though the reliability of the bike remains a question mark, which will only be removed once the racing begins.
It has been a busy couple of days at Misano, with the KTM and Aprilia MotoGP teams, and test teams from Suzuki and Ducati, joined by WorldSBK representatives from the KRT Kawasaki squad, and a small army of Ducati teams.
The MotoGP and WorldSBK riders have been able to try out the new asphalt at Misano in the blistering heat of an Italian summer.
Miguel Oliviera is fastest after the first two days, the Red Bull Tech3 rider just a couple of tenths faster on Wednesday than Pol Espargaro had been on Tuesday.
World championship motorcycle racing takes another step back to the season returning at Misano.
The next three days sees both MotoGP and WorldSBK teams testing at the Italian circuit, preparing for the resumption of hostilities at Jerez in July and August.
Present are the MotoGP teams of KTM and Aprilia, allowed extra testing due to their status as concessions teams. Aleix Espargaro and Bradley Smith are riding for Aprilia, the second test for the Italian factory.
It was a day of good news and bad news for Aprilia.
On the day that the Court of Arbitration of Sport announced that WADA had appealed against the penalty imposed on Andrea Iannone, demanding his suspension be extended to the full four years set out in the doping code, the Italian factory was also able to announce a two-year contract extension with Aleix Espargaro.
The Spaniard will remain with Aprilia for the 2021 and 2022 seasons in MotoGP.
The COVID-19 pandemic has complicated motorcycle racing in many different ways, some quite unexpected. To address some of those complications, the Grand Prix Commission, MotoGP’s rulemaking body, agreed a number of exceptions to the rules for the 2020 season, concerning wildcards, concerning concession points, and concerning engine development.
Engine development had already been frozen in response to the coronavirus crisis. In part as a cost-cutting measure, and in part because the European manufacturers had had their factories closed, all six MSMA members agreed to halt engine development and use the engines they were due to homologate for the 2020 season for the start of the 2021 season.
The last of the factory teams to unveil their 2020 team and livery, Aprilia Racing is showing off an early iteration of its 2020 Aprilia RS-GP MotoGP race bike.
Unlike some other debuts, Aprilia (like KTM) is showing us some of the actual changes we will see for next season, most notably the RS-GP’s revised intake and aerodynamics package.
Of note is the lengthy amount of work gone into streamlining the front wheel area of the Aprilia RS-GP, and we can see that the tail section sports a salad box configuration, similar to what Ducati pioneered.