The dark horse in the 2022 MotoGP Championship has to be the Aprilia RS-GP race bike. With a budget that is a fraction of the other factories, Aprilia has been able to evolve the RS-GP each season into a sharper weapon – albeit, slowly.
The Italian squad made big steps in the 2021 season, however, and Aprilia is keen to keep that momentum moving forward and see Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales on the top rankings of the score sheets.
Taking one look at the 2022-spec bike, which was on hand for the team’s season unveiling and photography, and we can already see the evolutions in place for the coming season, and motions are under way for a breakout year.
Will it be enough to keep pace with the changes coming from the other factories, though?
HRC has already shown big movements for the 2022 Honda RC213V, the rolling stone at Ducati gathers no moss, and you can be sure that KTM, Suzuki, and Yamaha are not resting on their laurels. In other words, the competition is still just as fierce.
That is the problem too, as the issue for the Noale factory has never been the team’s inability to make progress on the design of the Aprilia GS-GP, but instead it has been their ability to keep pace with the other manufacturers that has kept them from true victory.
Aprilia Racing still has its concessions though, which gives them wider leeway to test and debut new parts. That is the leg-up they hold for the 2022 season, and hopefully it means a quicker acceleration to the top of the timesheets for them this year.
Can they use that advantage to offset what they are not spending with their pocketbook?
That will be the story to watch as the MotoGP Championship unfurls in the coming months. Until then, we can pore over the photos in the gallery below. Enjoy!
Source: Aprilia Racing
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