Aleix Espargaro explains why ‘old school’ style works with MotoGP aero

Aleix Espargaro will need to take part in Saturday’s Qualifying 1 session at the Portuguese MotoGP after a fall on Friday afternoon, combined with yellow flags, left him in 14th place.

But the factory Aprilia rider, on the front row and Sprint podium in Qatar opener, was still only 0.755s from the top and confident in how the 2024 RS-GP is performing around the roller-coaster challenge of a dusty Portimao.

“The bike’s working good. It’s my fault. I was not brilliant today riding it, but overall the bike is OK,” Espargaro said.

“I was always too late to adapt to the track,” he added. “Then in the worst moment I had a small crash. Then I took bike two, I went super fast in split one and then I found yellow flags for Morbidelli and I had no more time.

“We're missing a little bit of rear grip, especially with the medium [race] tyre. But there’s still time to improve the bike and also the track tomorrow will improve a lot.

“Anyway, I think tomorrow I will be close to the top guys. But I will have to go to Q1.

“[Making Qualifying 2 directly] is always difficult, because it's at least 14-15 very fast riders. So Q1’s it's gonna be fun to watch. I feel like we can go through but it's not going to be easy.”

Aleix's old school style: 'In a lot of points, I have a big advantage'

Espargaro’s drama meant team-mate Maverick Vinales was the top Aprilia rider, in seventh (+0.354s).

Otherwise, Vinales and Trackhouse rider Miguel Oliveira (17th on Friday) have had a tougher time adapting to the higher downforce and revised bike balance of the ’24 Aprilia.

Espargaro, 34 and the oldest rider on the grid, admits he has an ‘old school’ body-on-the-bike riding style, rather than leaning far from the bike with his elbow down.

The triple MotoGP race winner has previously revealed that he often enjoys better acceleration than his RS-GP colleagues, and was pressed again on what benefits his riding style offers.

“In the last two years with Romano [Albesiano], with the engineers, we tried to analyse the benefits and the negatives of riding like this. And it affects quite a lot the tyres. In some places it’s good. In others not that much,” Espargaro said.

“One really good guy we have in the team, not a technician, is [test rider] Matteo Biacocco. He's analysing everything, making videos [to compare riding styles]. So we talk a lot about this. And in a lot of points, I have a big advantage, more than what people thought.”

While the recent increase in MotoGP downforce was thought to be linked in some way to Espargaro’s rising performance, the reason why his style works so well on the latest aero-dripping machines was unclear.

“Nowadays you don't need to push that much the bike with your head [down low] on the floor because you have a lot of downforce, so the bikes are a lot easier to ride,” Espargaro explained.

“So if you move a little bit of weight in some places [by staying more on the bike], you stress a lot less the tyre. So it's not the most beautiful riding style for sure, but it's effective.”

But Espargaro wouldn’t go as far as to say others need to try and use a similar style.

“It's very difficult to say this…. I don't know. In the last seasons, I have many strong riders by my side.

“And yeah, you can say that I'm a really hard worker and whatever you want, but at the end of the day, you need to go fast. And I'm really fast. And having this year, Raul and Miguel and Maverick - they are super talented.”

And you’ve often been the fastest…

“So it means my riding style is not that bad!” Espargaro smiled.