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During the first rounds of the season, Aprilia seemed to be Ducati's main rival or, at least, the only one able to keep up with its pace. Instead, as we entered the heart of the championship, the Noale manufacturer lost its competitiveness and shine, putting its two riders, Viñales and Espargaro, in difficulty. In particular, Aleix suffered a lot in Japan by failing to enter the Q2 and then falling in the Sprint Race.
Ninth at the end of the GP, the future Honda test rider complained of an obvious handicap with regard to the Desmosedici. Proof of this was the 30-second gap from Bagnaia, the winner. "It was really bad. I struggled a lot, and I'm devastated. This weekend, I struggled to understand and accept things," he said in an outburst when speaking to AS.
The lack of grip was what influenced him the most. "It seems like we use different tires and the asphalt is different. It's surreal the way I was overtaken by Bezzecchi and Di Giannantonio." Aleix was unable to hide his disappointment before sharing his feelings about the bike and explaining what wasn't working.
"The bike just won't go and, because of the poor grip, I drifted the entire race. It was a fluke that I made it to the finish line. From the way I was sliding so much, the fuel light came on," he explained. Then he answered the crucial question of whether his RS-GP24 has been regressing lately.
"I don't know if it's worse in Motegi than elsewhere. I'd like to know. We'll analyze it with the team and the engineers. To date, however, I'm not able to identify what has gotten worse on the bike. Certainly, the others have improved a lot, unlike us. Maybe we aren't able to do that or, actually, we went a bit backwards," he commented. But, amid these unsolved questions, there's one certainty: ofthe importance of lowering the times. "The Grand Prixs today are ten or twelve seconds faster," he pointed out.
