until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
The bombshell announcement that three-time MotoGP runner-up Andrea Dovizioso will join Aprilia for a three-day test at Jerez caught many by surprise.
But given Aprilia’s rising stock and Dovi’s contract freedom, it could well be a match made in heaven.
The biggest reason why it was a surprise was because it’s only a few short months since Dovizioso rejected Aprilia’s offers to ride for it in 2021.
He instead chose to sit at home unemployed rather than riding the uncompetitive Aprilia RS-GP, after walking away from the negotiating table at Ducati.
Dovizioso made it crystal clear at the time, however, that while he wouldn’t be on the 2021 grid (at least in a full-time role) he fully intended his break to be a sabbatical and not a move into early retirement.
He would be aiming to return to racing action in 2022 – a move that to be frank looked overly optimistic as factory teams snapped up other riders on two-year deals.
So while the news of the Aprilia trial run might be a shock, in the context of those two decisions, it suddenly makes perfect sense that we’re suddenly seeing Dovizioso’s name back in the headlines.
Firstly, there’s been a key shift in the dynamics of the 2021 grid this week. As Marc Marquez looks increasingly likely to make a full recovery from his arm injuries and return to injury sooner rather than later, one of Dovi’s routes back to action has been removed.
It’s an open secret that he entered into negotiations last year with Marquez’s employer Honda, with a mind to not only joining the team as a test rider but to also become its stand-in should Marquez (or another Honda rider) be unable to race through injury.
That’s traditionally the spot taken by Stefan Bradl, and the German is safe in his seat. So the opportunity for Dovizioso to do what Bradl did in 2020 and replace eight-time world champion Marquez for the entire season is decisively off the table as Marquez aims for a return to action in the opening rounds of 2021.
Secondly, there was the incredible pace of Aprilia’s number one rider Aleix Espargaro during MotoGP’s scant five days of testing at the Losail International Circuit, the home of the first two races of this year.
He was running consistently inside the top three on race pace and leading much of the five days of testing as Aprilia finally got to grips with the radically-different new machine it introduced at the start of 2020 only to run out of development time. It finally looks like Aprilia’s significant inroads in closing the gap to its more established rivals.
That’s largely a result of MotoGP’s coronavirus-induced development freeze, with emergency decrees banning other teams from significantly altering their bikes for the coming year – but allowing Aprilia, with its concession status, to continue working. It seems like it’s not looked a gift horse in the mouth, and there’s been a marked improvement so far already this year.
And thirdly, there’s the position of Aprilia’s ‘third’ rider Lorenzo Savadori. He was promoted from test rider to racer as an eleventh hour choice after an entire host of riders rejected the chance to ride for Aprilia this year, but the team’s history of unconventional management decisions means that he’s in a somewhat perilous seat – a fact that could benefit Dovizioso.
Dovi was only one of the names on the list who rejected the chance to join the team last year on a bike that looked considerably less impressive than the current model. Cal Crutchlow, Fabio Di Giannantonio, Marco Bezzecchi and Joe Roberts all also rejected Aprilia’s approaches, leaving it to promote it test rider Savadori after a short three-race trial in the final rounds of 2020.
But while he might right now be down on paper to start the season for Aprilia, there is the traditional uncertainty that Aprilia’s cursed second seat seems to attract.
Since 2016, Espargaro has been teamed up with Sam Lowes (signed a two-year deal, released after one), Scott Redding (ditto), Andrea Iannone (banned for doping after his first year) and Bradley Smith (demoted to test rider with three races remaining).
That history doesn’t exactly inspire confidence that the team will stand by its man for the coming year should a better option come along, and with Aprilia already demonstrating that it’s prepared to change riders mid-season if it deems it necessary, it could present Dovizioso with a route back onto the grid even sooner than 2022 should his test go well.
While there are lots of reasons why Dovizioso might be considering his Aprilia chances ahead of the three-day test on April 12-14, there are potentially big gains to be made by the team as well.
There’s no questioning the talent or determination of lead rider Espargaro – but, as one of the very few riders on the grid who has never taken a victory in any class of grand prix racing, he’s also arguably never shown that he’s got what it takes to push for race wins in the premier class regardless of what bike he’s on.
Dovizioso, on the other hand, is a proven world champion in 125cc, 15-time MotoGP race winner, and a genuine title contender who is the only man in recent years who has been able to push Marc Marquez for the crown.
And what will come from that added few tenths that he brings is the chance to finally benchmark the RS-GP against Aprilia’s rivals.
There will be many eager ears waiting to hear the initial words of feedback when he jumps off the machine after his first run at Jerez – and it’s feedback that could leave the Noale factory’s engineering department rejoicing or demoralised.
Should the test go well – if the 2021 bike is as good as we suspect it might be – there’s another golden opportunity for Aprilia though: the chance to get the bargain of a lifetime by snapping up the unemployed Dovizioso out of contract season.
It’s widely believed that his talks with both Ducati and KTM fell apart last year over money, with the Italian demanding more than either manufacturer was willing to offer.
There’s certainly no huge surplus of cash to form out on wages at Aprilia, which sits alongside Suzuki at the poorer end of MotoGP’s factory rich list, but could the prospect of a competitive motorbike and big win bonuses (something that can be insured rather than paid in advance) be enough to tempt Dovi to sign the deal he initially rejected last September?
Those laps at Jerez could be very significant.
