On the Thursday before the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello, Aprilia confirmed that it would have Aleix Espargaró and Maverick Viñales for two more years. This puts an end to the weeks of discussions between the Granollers driver and the Noale factory, dating back to the Indonesian GP in March, when the Spaniard admitted that the talks with the team had left him “sad” to see that both parts were widely separated in labor terms.
Espargaró , whose new deal will be worth around two million euros a year, maintains that his “wish” was always to stay with Aprilia for 2023, but he had no problem accepting 2022 as his final year in MotoGP had the season not come. offer.
“I wasn’t really looking at other real options,” Espargaro said at Mugello on Thursday. “I said from the beginning that my wish was to stay in Aprilia, so it was still quite early to find other options.”
“I’m 32 years old, I feel like I still have a lot of energy to stay in this paddock, to show my potential. But if it was time to leave and try other things, I was happy, and after Argentina even more so.”
“I am very happy and grateful for the opportunity that Aprilia gives me for the next two years,” added Aleix Espargaró.
Aprilia, for its part, is keen to expand its bike roster for 2023, with Leopard Racing last month admitting its interest in taking over the grid slots from Suzuki next year.
Asked for an update on his plans for 2023, Aprilia CEO Massimo Rivola said his deadline to find a team is “around these days”.
“I would like to tell you that the answer is very soon, but in a way it will be very soon if it is a yes or a no, because the deadline we gave is around these days,” Rivola said.
“Aleix [Espargaró] is pressuring me to do it. And if it is not possible, we will continue as we have done until now. It is not something we have to do, it is an opportunity for our company to grow, it is an opportunity to do grow the bike, the riders, the engineers”.
“It is an opportunity, but to do it correctly we need to have a yes or a no in a few days,” he concluded.
