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For Raul Fernandez, the Silverstone weekend coincided with an important change. For the first time the Spaniard got on the RS-GP24 and there was no shortage of difficulties. Nothing serious, but by the Spaniard's own admission getting used to the new bike was far from a walk in the park, which is why in the morning he did not go beyond 21st place, while in the afternoon he managed to climb back up to 12th having become more familiar with it.
"It was not easy because there was a lot of work to do ," he commented, " Plus Aprilia brought a new holeshot device. That's another reason why Free Practice 1 was hard. In Jerez when I had tested it after the race weekend it was very easy because the set-up was similar to what I had used before, but here after three weeks off on a complex track, it was different. I have to admit that, initially, the feeling was not the best. Even in the first few laps I wanted to go back to the RS-GP23, but the guys did an outstanding job for the next round."
With a cool head, however, the Spanish rider found positives to focus on. "I got close to the top 10 and the pace was not bad. I lack experience, also in terms of downforce, but overall I'm happy and I had fun as well. I think I still have some margin and I know I'm competitive. Today Espargaro used a different setting, now I will look at his information because that solution might work for me as well," he explained his day.
"The new bike requires a change in mentality. In corner entry it is very different and I still have to understand it. I will have to analyze the data, however it was nice to restart the championship with something new even if it is not easy to do it during a race weekend. It has to be said that with the old bike I was the only one, so if there was any problem I couldn't compare myself with anyone but past data. Another comforting aspect is that in Noale they are working a lot, too bad precisely that maybe this was not the right circuit to test the new height adjuster," he finally considered.
