For essentially his entire MotoGP career, Aprilia rider Maverick Vinales has had one significant weakness: an inability to match his rivals off the line when the lights go out.
Has he finally made a breakthrough? Vinales has been adamant that both he and Aprilia have been working hard to rectify that this season, and last weekend’s three race starts – one in the sprint, and two in the Catalan Grand Prix – at Barcelona finally seemed to back up his claims.
The issue first became evident for Vinales, now in ninth year in the premier class, while he was at Yamaha but has been arguably the biggest hindrance in his quest to return to race-winning ways since his Aprilia switch midway through 2021, despite his claims he has worked hard himself to try to correct his side of that equation.
That was, at least, until last weekend, when all three of his race starts were flawless – besting team-mate and eventual sprint/main race double winner Aleix Espargaro, as well as keeping up with the Ducati of Pecco Bagnaia and Brad Binder, arguably MotoGP’s best starter aboard the KTM.
Aprilia has, according to The Race’s sources, set up a specialised race start development group within its engineering team at its Noale factory, something Espargaro said had immediately paid off.
“After Jerez, when I did pole position, I did four starts and lost four positions every time, in that moment we realised that we really needed to focus and concentrate on the clutch,” he told The Race.
“They’ve never stopped working. Every Friday, we receive some new updates on the clutch side, and we’re testing, testing.
“I think today [Saturday] Maverick did the best race start of Aprilia ever. In the practice, it’s a little bit easier without the other bikes. It’s not easy, we’re trying different parts and strategies. My start was normal but Maverick’s was like a rocket, so it means that we’re progressing.
“It’s good, because if we ask for something you see how closely the factory is listening. It makes the riders want to be even better.”
The clutch is used only at the start of the race as MotoGP bikes’ seamless gearboxes do not require it after that, and is an area of development that until relatively recently was somewhat ignored by factories. But with a recent push to find any advantage, Aprilia technical boss Romano Albesiano said it’s an area in which the manufacturer has been forced to pick up the slack.
Aprilia has worked closely with supplier AP, a UK-based manufacturer that also supplies carbon clutches to the vast majority of the Formula 1 grid, and Albesiano said the steps that have been made are slowly but surely allowing Aprilia to close down its European rivals in particular.
“If you compare to the beginning of the season, then definitely we have made some improvements, with the clutch,” he told The Race.
“In the past, we didn’t pay big effort and focus on the clutch, but it’s become more and more and more important. The competitors put a lot of effort into this, KTM first and then Ducati. The way is unbelievable.
“We are still far from them, but we will keep working with AP, our supplier in the UK. We are working very well with them, testing new parts in the Misano test [after this weekend’s race], and chasing our competitors. We’re not too far away now.”
But the technical work being done by the team is not the part that Vinales, who is bidding to become the first rider to win for three factories in the modern era, is most pleased with.
He said the way in which the factory has reacted to his requests will be even more important in the future.
“For me the best of all of this is the quick response of all of the team,” insisted Vinales, who finished runner-up behind Espargaro at Barcelona.
“In the future, if we’re fighting for a title, this quick response from the team will be very important. Everyone is improving – Ducati, KTM. The small details make a big difference, and Aleix and I must push everyone.
“We are riding the bike fantastically, doing the difference, and our mission is to push everyone to be stronger. We did a good job in Austria speaking with the engineers, trying to learn what we could do, and for me it was a pleasure to start well [in the Barcelona races].”
