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Confirmed as Miguel Oliveira's replacement for the Thailand leg as well, Lorenzo Savadori is ready to get back on the Trackhouse Racing team's RS-GP. Although he is still not in the best physical condition after the arm problem that forced him to retire in Australia, the test rider from Cesena is looking forward to testing the Buriram track with a MotoGP bike and trying all the new features brought by Aprilia.
"I feel better. I still have to get my arm checked at the clinic, but the doctor told me it should be fine here ," Lorenzo confirmed . "The problem I had in Australia was that it had slightly pinched the nerve in the strong impact I sustained. That's why I was declared 'unfit' on Saturday night. On Sunday I tried, but after three laps I had to retire because I lost strength and could no longer hold the handlebars. Now I feel it's getting better and better, so I'm looking forward to getting back on the track. It's been a while since I've been riding here. Since 2018, in Superbike. I just talked to Aprilia, Rivola and the bosses, and there are several things to try. We'll see how they work."
Indeed, Savadori will not only be in action as a substitute, but also in his usual role as a test rider.
"In all these races we are trying to work for next year. These are test races for the future, more in view of 2025 - he explained - A lot of what we were supposed to test was brought here, so we test it during the races. For me it's not the easiest thing in the world, because it's hard to be able to get performance while doing these kinds of tests. Clearly, though, our goal right now is 2025 and trying to grow the bike more and more."
How do you explain Aprilia's decline in these races?
"These, historically, are tracks on which we have never been able to excel because of the characteristics of the bike and some of its flaws, " answered the 31-year-old. " In Motegi, for example, there are big braking and high-speed restarts and, although we are working on it, this at the moment is not the ideal situation for our bike and we will find similar conditions here to Japan. In Australia, all things considered, it was not bad, because Maverick was 3rd on the fast lap. But during the race our opponents definitely took a step forward, which we have to try to do. In fact, we are also working on this aspect, with a view to the race."
In Australia, Raul Fernandez was able to ride an Aprilia without wings, saying he was enthusiastic about the bike deprived of aerodynamic appendages. A solution not unheard of for the test rider, however, who feels it is not very functional on tracks other than Phillip Island.
"We have tried other times to remove them, especially in private testing, but Australia is a track that is a story in itself: there are very fast corners, there is a lot of wind, and there are only two braking, but these are not important. So, it' s fine for Australia, but on the rest of the tracks the advantage that our aerodynamics gives, in my opinion, is much higher," Savadori said.
"Without wings there is a lot of power. The bike wheelies and is harder to stop. Our aerodynamics are very advanced and the power-traction-engine brake package, it works and is tuned to this type of wings. So by taking them off, you have to adapt these parameters to the fact that you don't have the wings, which do so much in acceleration and straight line, but also in braking and going downhill ," he added, "In Australia it's different because, as I said, that track is a story in itself.
So what is the point of doing such an experiment?
"I have a hard time answering that," he admitted , " Certainly you collect quite different data at various stages of the corner, which maybe allows you to understand some things. However, that is a question that should be addressed to the engineers."
Automatic Translation by DeepL
