SBK, Savadori: "This Aprilia is different"

The Jerez test was “just” a preseason test, but the messages were clear enough: Rea is still the man to beat and Lorenzo Savadori the young talent with the most potential to express.

It was the team Aprilia Milwaukee rider from Cesena who got close to Kawasaki’s two-time defending World Champion, squeezing out a gap of just one tenth and a bit, which tells us two things: the 2017 RSV4 is a brilliant bike and Lorenzo is improving exponentially.

The winter break neither cooled off nor rusted Savadori…

 “It’s true, I hadn’t been in the saddle for a while, but I did not have any problems and I did not feel the fatigue. I trained a lot over the winter and I was ready for Jerez. In two days of testing I did about 120 laps, around fifty yesterday and seventy today. I did not try to simulate a race with any long runs; I just did a few laps at a time in several outings.”

Was your bike different than the one used last year?

“Yes, this RSV4 is different. There are a lot of differences between last season’s and the 2017 model and they are not concentrated in a specific technical area, but they are rather distributed throughout the vehicle. It will take some more testing and a few more miles to gain confidence and the right feeling.”

Your times were quite interesting. What tyres did you use?

“I used Pirelli qualifiers. The grip on the track was not the best. I also put on race tyres and felt rather good. We are on the right path and we will try to improve even more. I am comfortable with the team and that is a good start.”

Were you able to see how your rivals are performing?

“To be honest, I didn’t encounter any rivals, so I wouldn’t know how they are going. I only saw that Laverty crashed, but I don’t know how it happened. I saw that he was walking around and was okay fortunately.”

Now you will go to Portimão…

“Yes, I like the Portuguese track a lot; I like it’s ‘up and down’ characteristics. We will be there in a few days and we will continue trying to discover this new Aprilia with which I am developing more feeling. I would like to get to know this RSV4 even better. Speed and precision are a couple of its strong points.”