Aprilia Racing Team Gresini’s Aleix Espargaro has confirmed via social media that he has signed a two-year contract extension with the Noale factory, seeing him ride the RS-GP until the end of 2022 at least.
The elder Espargaro brother joined Aprilia in 2017, scoring the team’s joint-best result of P6 on his debut under the Qatari lights. Since then, his Aprilia journey hasn’t been straight-forward but the Spaniard has proved to be a pivotal asset for the Italian manufacturer, with Esparagro playing a key role in birthing a brand-new RS-GP for the 2020 season.
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We’re yet to find out who will partner Espargaro for the 2021 and 2022 seasons, with MotoGP™’s contractual ‘silly season’ currently in full flow.
Aleix Espargaro: “I am happy about this confirmation. The human aspect is extremely important for me, and in four seasons, Aprilia has become my second family, so with this contract, which is certainly the most important of my career, they demonstrated that I am at the centre of this project. On a technical level, the growth in recent months convinced me, with the arrival of many reinforcements and the début of the 2020 RS-GP, which did so well in the tests. I feel like we need to finish the job we started over the winter. I can’t wait to get back together with my entire team and race with the new bike, to take this project where it deserves to be.”
Massimo Rivola, CEO Aprilia Racing: “We wanted Aleix’s confirmation by all means and we are very happy that it arrived. At a rather tumultuous time for the rider market, providing continuity for our project with a rider the calibre of Aleix is essential. With him, who we have established as our captain, we have begun an entirely new project, involving new resources and taking a bike that seems to have come out very well onto the track. Now we hope that he will soon take an Aprilia to the top, where it has never been in MotoGP history.”