Does RNF Aprilia recruit Miguel Oliveira now have a good idea of what kind of MotoGP results he can strive for in 2023? “Absolutely not! I’m even more confused.”
It was said in an extremely jovial tone at the conclusion of the three-day Sepang test – but it did reflect a general message of ‘I still have so much to figure out here’ from the ex-KTM veteran.
In that sense, it’s tempting to view Sepang as a setback compared to the single day at Valencia at the end of 2022. There, Oliveira placed fourth on the timing screens in his first brush with the Aprilia RS-GP, sandwiched between the two Aprilia factory riders. His lap was just a tenth off the absolute best he’d managed there on the KTM, a bike he knew infinitely better.
But Oliveira never got anywhere near carried away with the significance of that fourth place – it’s clearly just not in his nature – so whatever challenges Sepang threw up won’t have come as a shock.
“This bike is very-very sensitive and very technical,” said Oliveira of the 2022 RS-GP he’ll have at his disposal for the season.
“This is basically the biggest difference from the previous bike that I rode for four years.
“You need to be really careful, and really technical riding the bike. This is maybe one of the hardest things which I will need to get used to.”
That “sensitivity” comes across “when you use real brake pressure, front brake pressure”, Oliveira explained, making technique a bigger differentiator than even set-up.
“I was not really used to that [sensitivity]. Also the changes we make, I feel them immediately.
“So in this case the Aprilia is really sensitive to what the rider is doing on top of it. So if I move my body a little bit towards the front, the bike would immediately have another behaviour. In this case, I will have to be more precise.”
None of those are criticisms – there’s no hint of buyer’s remorse in anything Oliveira has said about the RS-GP so far. He’s recognised a better-turning, high-potential bike, albeit one that just doesn’t stop as well as what he’s used to – meaning the Portuguese has been pursuing a trade-off between improving that bit and preserving “the turning speed and the agility”.
But the learning curve is there, and it’s resulted in “mixed feelings” to end the test. The time attack attempt didn’t go as well as he’d have liked – which was perhaps to be expected, as before it Oliveira himself had pointed out that it was a bike that punished a yet-unrefined technique with tenths left on the table.
“I think the work is very solid, I’m putting in a good effort to ride the bike – just today the time attacks didn’t feel natural.
“I was forcing things too much and couldn’t get any benefit from the new tyres. Which is a bit- I know it’s frustrating but for a three-day test it is what it is. I know everyone wants to perform immediately and we don’t have a lot of time to adapt.
“It is what it is. The potential to do things is much higher than what the results show.”
Except, well, even the results weren’t bad. Not at all, if you take Valencia out of the equation. His final-day time attack was, among other things, run in suboptimal hot weather, which presumably contributed to his day-two time standing as his benchmark for the test – but that was still good enough for a reasonably competitive 15th overall. And again, it was a laptime just around a tenth off what he’d done at Sepang with a KTM.
“I think we are building a strong foundation, a strong base to start the season,” Oliveira insisted.
True, new team-mate Raul Fernandez has had a more joyous Sepang outing, revelling in the RS-GP’s fit with a “smooth” style. But Oliveira had a theory for that.
“Raul has one year of experience on the KTM and he hasn’t really, I think, had to change too much of the style. Even last year he had quite a different style than we did.
“I’m trying to get rid of some habits that I have had for four years on the other bike, which clearly aren’t perfect on this one, they don’t work. So – I know exactly what I have to do, now we just need time.”
In that regard, it might be slightly annoying that his biggest race of the year – the home race at Portimao – is coming up as the opener. But Oliveira is already not slow with the Aprilia, so if he really does already see a clear roadmap to improvement, not maximising the Portuguese GP is a small price to pay for what can come later.
