Aprilia Not Attending First Pre-Season MotoGP Testing

The first official MotoGP pre-season testing will commence at Sepang and will be followed at Phillip Island in Australia. Almost every factory MotoGP team will be present to gather vital information. Unfortunately, Aprilia will be missing out on the first few pre-season tests.

Stefan Bradl and Alvaro Bautista will not be present at Sepang and Phillip Island. No Aprilia official will also be attending the vital test session. The Italian manufacturing outfit is surely at a disadvantage going into the 2016 MotoGP Championship.

The issue is that the 2016 Aprilia RS-GP prototype machinery is not yet ready for testing. Aprilia will miss two important pre-season testing which other manufacturers will benefit from. Bradl and Bautista will take part in private testing at Qatar directly by mid-February.

Aprilia had a disastrous return to MotoGP Championship, which was clearly underdeveloped. The RS-GP lacked straight line speed and mechanical grip which hindered optimal performance from its riders. Changes for 2016 puts Aprilia in further troubles with the Michelin tyres and unified ECU.

Surprisingly, both riders have not seen the 2016 bike so far and claim it is only on a computer. Aprilia has not revealed any design or sketches of their upcoming MotoGP project. Both riders are surely at a disadvantage and will not have adequate time to work on the new bike.