Spanish rider Aleix Espargaró and Aprilia have announced that they will continue racing together. The new deal is valid for two seasons, so Aleix Espargaró will be racing the RS-GP prototype until the end of the 2020 season.
Now that Aprilia has reached an agreement with their main rider, they will need to shift their focus to improve the reliability of the bike.
The main problem for Aprilia and the Gresini team, has been the reliability of the engine.
Aleix Espargaró is clearly a rider that is able to fight for a top 10 position. But this season alone the results he wanted to get have been ruined by two engine failures which have made him quit two races, and on the first race of the year in Qatar he lost the chance to get his first points also because of an engine problem.
Aleix’s teammate, Scott Redding, doesn’t seem to have so many engine problems. In fact, the British rider finished all the four MotoGP races held this season, but only twice he got into the points.
Redding arrived at Aprilia Gresini in the end of last season to replace Sam Lowes – who moved back to Moto2 – and he signed a one-year contract deal at the time. For the moment there’s no word if Redding will stay with the Italian team.