When Aleix Espargaro steps off his Aprilia RS-GP for the final time at this weekend’s Barcelona Grand Prix finale, he will be able to look back at a long and ultimately successful MotoGP career that few - including the man himself - are likely to have predicted unfolding the way it did.
In fact, celebrating his career path in grand prix racing as one no rider has traversed before him and probably never will is arguably the greatest tribute one can pay to the 35-year-old.
Set to retire with 255 premier class grand prix starts to his name, in terms of longevity at least, only Valentino Rossi can lay claim to having started more races once Espargaro bids adios to the grind of 20 international events a year.
And - cliché though it may be - if Espargaro’s career was a cheese, it certainly went on to mature into a fine blue. Indeed, with one round still to go, Espargaro will depart having tallied at least three MotoGP victories, plus two Sprint Race wins, 11 podiums and seven pole positions.
Moreover, not just for himself, but that maiden success at the 2022 Argentinian GP will rank as one of the series’ most memorable modern-era successes destined to be raised in fondness long after his final chequered flag.
Granted, while there is some backhanded cynicism to go with the addendum of his first victory coming at the 200th attempt in the premier class, the belatedness also speaks of a rider whose dogged attitude towards development and an ability to rally a team around him succeeded in keeping him on the grid when many more decorated contemporaries came and went.
Espargaro made his 125cc debut in 2004 and ascended to 250cc in 2006 before a full MotoGP debut came in 2009. Save for a season of Moto2 in 2011, he has remained on the MotoGP grid for an impressive 15 years. Indeed, there is some butterfly theory you could apportion to Espargaro being somewhat fortunate that a MotoGP career was even possible at all, even if being in the right place at that right time preceded a lengthy stint in the wrong one.
Grappling for grip on a junior development path that counted the likes of Marco Simoncelli, Alvaro Bautista, Hector Barbera and Hiroshi Aoyama among him in the quarter-litre division, Espargaro’s results in both 125cc and 250cc were solid, if not sparkling. Though a regular top 10 finisher, a personal best of fifth after four full seasons didn’t present him as a future MotoGP race winner, so much so that he was left without a 250cc seat altogether coming into 2009.
But being consigned to a Moto2 development rider role would go on to work in his favour. Espargaro was called up when Pramac Racing required a substitute for the injured Mika Kallio at short notice ahead of August's Indianapolis GP.
Espargaro’s legacy is a reminder of what perseverance and loyalty can achieve
The limitations of what was then a modestly competitive Ducati machinery notwithstanding, Espargaro acquitted himself well during a four-event stint, finishing and scoring in each. It led to a full-time deal for 2010 that set him on a long-term MotoGP career path that may not have ever come had he not been sidelined in the first place.
Leaving MotoGP with victories to a name will always be a credit to any rider. But by achieving his on an Aprilia package that for many years prior had been battling for relative scraps, Espargaro’s legacy is a reminder of what perseverance and loyalty can achieve.
Scouted out by Aprilia for the 2017 MotoGP season for his experience, Espargaro arrived at a team still finding its feet two years on from its return to the top flight after an absence of more than a decade. While Espargaro’s entry route from Suzuki - which also beat the comeback trail to MotoGP in 2015 - ensured he was familiar with a native project, at Aprilia he’d inherited one making only modest progress by comparison.
The combination of Aprilia splitting its project between being partly in-house, partly choreographed by Gresini Racing, machinery that had evolved awkwardly from a WorldSBK platform and questionable reliability would send it down several erroneous paths of development.
It was a credit then to Espargaro for keeping morale high during what would become a loyal eight-season stretch with Aprilia, for better and for worse. Having Espargaro grow with the project would prompt Aprilia to retain faith in the Spaniard to see it through, a vote of confidence that helped him return incrementally better results with each passing season.
So while Espargaro might not have been the obvious candidate to become a contender for race wins for much of his MotoGP career, by the time Aprilia had fettled the RS-GP into a competitive package, it’s hard to imagine anyone other than Espargaro achieving the best results on it.
A run to fourth overall during a 2022 season that delivered six podiums, including that popular maiden victory at Rio de Termas Hondo, is a crowning achievement in itself. But for Espargaro it comes with the thick slab of pride that comes from not only proving his credentials as an elite MotoGP rider, but doing so on a machine he’d curated from years of lengthy and often difficult development work.
In a series where most riders set out to traverse an upward trajectory towards a well-established front-line team in their pursuit of success, what sets Espargaro apart is that he’d take an entire manufacturer and team with him too.
As a new chapter as a development rider for Honda awaits, Espargaro will look over at Aprilia knowing he was the one to lay the foundation from which successors Jorge Martin and Marco Bezzecchi will springboard from in 2025. And that is something to be especially proud of.
