{"id":713258,"date":"2026-06-03T20:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T20:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/713258\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T20:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T20:05:10","slug":"how-aprilia-turns-a-motogp-weekend-upside-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/713258\/","title":{"rendered":"How Aprilia turns a MotoGP weekend \u201cupside down\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Aprilia technical director Fabiano Sterlacchini says attention to detail helped transform a difficult Friday into a dominant Mugello MotoGP weekend.<\/p>\n<p>The Italian manufacturer recovered from a best of seventh in Friday practice to lock out the front row in qualifying, then secure one-two finishes in both the Sprint and grand prix.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/teams\/aprilia-racing\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Aprilia <\/a>came within 0.034s of sweeping the entire Sunday podium, with Trackhouse rider Ai Ogura narrowly missing out to Ducati\u2019s Pecco Bagnaia.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking after the race, Sterlacchini explained how Aprilia&#8217;s work behind the scenes allowed it to completely change the course of its weekend.<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/gng_1320163_hires_1600x900.jpg\"   type=\"image\/jpeg\" alt=\"Bezzecchi, Martin, 2026 Italian MotoGP.\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.78\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Bezzecchi, Martin, 2026 Italian MotoGP.<\/p>\n<p> \u00a9\u00a0Gold and Goose<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Upside-down&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs I usually say, it&#8217;s super important not to forget any aspect,\u201d said Sterlacchini.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, what we do normally is we try to improve any weak point of the bike, but in the meantime, we also try to improve the system of work here during the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat is important is that sometimes Friday is not a fantastic day, but then we turn the weekend completely \u2018upside-down\u2019 by meetings, analysis, working with the riders, improving the riding style, improving the setting of the bike, the electronics, everything.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery millisecond is super important and the philosophy is always the same: A lot of drops make an ocean, so you must find the most drops that you can.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Aprilia&#8217;s dream home weekend also included a new all-time<a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> MotoGP<\/a> top speed record of 368.6km\/h, set by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/973236\/jorge-martin\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jorge Martin <\/a>during final practice.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>Despite the performance leap from Friday to Sunday, Sterlacchini said the RS-GP&#8217;s set-up remained close to its normal baseline.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBasically, in motorsport, in motorcycling, it&#8217;s super important to find a good base and work around this good base,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cClearly, you have to [refine] the set-up a bit depending on the grip level that you have and also the layout of the track. Because a stop-and-go track clearly cannot be like here in Mugello.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the meantime, the [low] grip level that you have in Barcelona and, for example, Jerez, asks you to make some modifications on the bike.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe arrived here having analysed the characteristics of this track and we tried to prepare in the best way possible and that was super important.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/gng_1320133_hires_1600x900.jpg\"   type=\"image\/jpeg\" alt=\"Bezzecchi kisses Aprilia, 2026 Italian MotoGP.\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.78\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Bezzecchi kisses Aprilia, 2026 Italian MotoGP.<\/p>\n<p> \u00a9\u00a0Gold and Goose<\/p>\n<p>Having won five of the first seven grands prix of the season, Aprilia has emerged as the manufacturer to beat in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Mugello winner <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/995158\/marco-bezzecchi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Marco Bezzecchi <\/a>and team-mate Martin lead the riders\u2019 standings, while Aprilia also heads the constructors&#8217; and teams&#8217; standings.<\/p>\n<p>Sterlacchini revealed that one of his key objectives since joining Aprilia has been to create a bike capable of performing at every circuit, even if that means accepting less performance at some tracks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of my missions when I joined Aprilia was [to identify] the main ingredients to be competitive everywhere,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, we tried to work also from the perspective that we do not have to find something that is super extreme, super performing in [only] one track.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are working also to, let me say, accept some deficit. Because when the rider is facing a race where you are struggling in terms of grip level, in terms of competitiveness&#8230; the next races you think, I&#8217;m still strong or not?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, it&#8217;s important to think from an overall perspective, to maintain this good balance of the bike.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bezzecchi heads to this weekend&#8217;s Hungarian Grand Prix with a 17-point championship lead over Martin.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aprilia technical director Fabiano Sterlacchini says attention to detail helped transform a difficult Friday into a dominant Mugello&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":713259,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[18009,64,63,5744,10732,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-713258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-aprilia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-jorge-martin","tag-marco-bezzecchi","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=713258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/713259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}