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Without a shadow of doubt, Aprilia took the championship by surprise in 2022, fighting for the top positions for a good part of the season, and coming close to a third place in the Riders' World Championship with Aleix Espargaró, who ended the year with an unfortunate retirement in Valencia, together with his teammate. But what has brought about this change of gear of the Italian manufacturer?
“We are faster because we have improved as a company. It's no secret that we've been hiring new people since I arrived. Many come to us directly from university, but there are also more experienced profiles, coming from MotoGP and Formula 1. The question is how we can continue to grow in this direction. This is the challenge,” Massimo Rivola explained to Speedweek, commenting on the clear step forward made by the Noale-based company.
An improvement in performance that allowed Maverick Vinales and Aleix Espargaró to pick up eight podiums in the season and the first MotoGP victory for the Veneto team. Results however that didn't impress the team's CEO that much.
“As I always say, every year we have the previous one as a benchmark, so we had a benchmark target. The most difficult thing will be next year - commented Rivola - Of course we were also a little lucky because some of our competitors did not improve their performance as we had expected, so we attracted more attention than expected. But our performance was very close to my expectations. Maybe I didn't expect us to be so competitive on some tracks in the middle of the season and for it to go so badly at the end of the championship."
But what was the key in terms of management that made this step forward possible?
“In a company with slightly more employees, it's easier to get people to do their job well. My first goal was to take away from Romano Albesiano everything that wasn't directly related to the bike's performance. I told him that he no longer had to worry about organizational issues, sporting management and the riders - he explained - I don't think we have done something special, as one might think from the outside. The biggest secret of our success is that we worked hard, from morning till night, and we did it every day. It's about reminding people that you can do it if you work hard."
