Maverick Vinales says Aprilia’s situation in MotoGP is getting “worse and worse” with every round after a disastrous showing in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
Struggling with heavy degradation on his RS-GP's medium tyres, Americas GP winner Vinales slid from eighth on the grid to a measly 13th place, his worst result of the 2024 season.
His team-mate Aleix Espargaro dropped from pole position to finish sixth in Britain, almost 10 seconds down on race winner Enea Bastianini on the factory Ducati.
Aprilia’s poor showing last weekend was made to look worse by the fact Espargaro had won the race exactly 12 months ago, while the factory-run RS-GPs had also looked rapid in the early part of the year.
The decline in Aprilia’s form in recent races is a matter of concern for Vinales, who urged the Noale-based marque to find a solution to reverse its fortunes in MotoGP.
“It’s difficult to accept the result honestly, it's not what we are looking for,” said the Spaniard, who is joining KTM squad Tech3 next season along with Bastianini.
“We need to understand that there is something missing because the degradation of the rear tyres is not even normal, so we must understand why in the last four races we haven't been at the level we need to be in.
“The tyre after six laps was completely gone, I passed from 1m59s to 2m01s. So we need to understand what is causing this tyre consumption because I never pass the speed limit in all the race trying to control [the pace].
“It's true that in the sprint sometimes I was able to fight, but as soon as we put the medium tyre on [in the race], we were really just trying to cruise and [we were] not really really strong.
“So it's important for the factory to try to stop a little bit and think how we can reverse this situation because it's getting worse and worse. We need to see how to get up again.”
Ducati swept the top five positions in Sunday’s race, as it extended its advantage over its rivals in MotoGP. Espargaro and Tech3’s Pedro Acosta were the only non-Ducati riders to finish inside the top 10 in the British GP, highlighting just how far ahead the Borgo Panigale marque is at present.
However, Vinales believes the result is more an indicator of Aprilia moving backwards in the pecking order rather than Ducati making a big leap with its Desmosedici bikes, as he highlighted RS-GP’s trait of eating its tyres too quickly
“It seems that somehow we lost quite the way to be competitive,” said Vinales, who remains the only rider to beat Ducati to a grand prix victory in 2024.
“I don't think Ducati improved, we lower[ed] the potential and we need to get back again.
“I'm trying to understand what we are missing but to be honest it's hard because I'm riding the bike on the limit, but the lap time and the way we are treating the tyres is wrong.”
Vinales also pointed to a drop in his own pace on the Aprilia, stressing how he was slower in this year’s British GP qualifying compared to 2022, when he qualified on the front row.
However, while his own team-mate Espargaro broke the Silverstone lap record in qualifying, it must be noted that MotoGP moved back to the Formula 1 layout in 2023, with the lap now starting at the Hamilton Straight adjacent to the Silverstone Wing.
“It's hard to say but I don't think they [Ducati] did a big step to be honest, it's just we slowed down,” he said.
“I'm not riding the fastest I can ride. We got down in our level because in '22 I did 57.7 [actually 1m57.865] in the quali and this year I did a 58.1 and then crashed, so this is not normal.
“For sure we are slowing down and we need to regain that potential that we had in the initial part of the year. We need to see how, I don't know why, but we need to see how.”
