As much as I hate Lorenzo, I think he made some sense ref esparagus, I don’t think he’s got enough experience in factory or full motogp established teams to really develop a bike. Equally though, Aprilia deserve all they get (or don’t) as their management style over the last 4-5 years has been seriously questionable
From a purely selfish point of view, it would be good to see how much a rider of his renowned skill, can lift an alleged piece of crap. I'd really like it to be demonstrated across the length of a full season TBH.
He's shown the odd glimmer of hope, is that down to the bike though? Stick him on a known winning machine would he suddenly be on the podium or mulling around in the back 1/2 of the field? And given seemingly how mismanaged, under financed the Aprilia effort is he's probably there because they're paying him pretty well. He's got the best and worst of all worlds thinking about it, he's on a bike literally no one else wants to ride and he's getting paid handsomely to do so, if he comes nowhere it's the bikes fault, if he does OK he comes out smelling of roses, but he can't get a better ride because no team will take a punt on the salary he expects from his results. Must also be hard for any of the long term MotoGP riders who've been there a few years now knowing that they'll never win a race against MM, FQ, MV, so they're just making up the numbers. As for Dovi, it's a win win, he gets to ride a MotoGP bike with no pressure, gets a few quid, gets the media interested, if his times are crap again it's the bike, if not then it shows he's still a world class racer and maybe someone will chuck a contract under his nose.
I really like Dovi. This is a good thing. It keeps him in the eye of motogp. I really hope he does well and I'll be rooting for him. I hope he puts it in front of the Ducati's eventually. It will be tough though. Really tough.
This is a great situation for both parties, especially Aprilia. Let’s see what he thinks about the RS-GP in April. 4 more days!!
He’s testing it this week at Jerez https://motomatters.com/news/2021/04/11/private_motogp_test_in_jerez_andrea.html#comments
Seeing Dovi in that Shoei helmet in that design is strange. I love Ducati motorcycles, but I am not so fond of how they treat their riders in their GP and SBK programs; specifically Stoner, Iannone, Dovi, and Davies. I’m hoping he gels with the RS-GP and spoils some wins for Ducati if/when he races.
