Espargaro: Redding as test rider ‘unbelievably good’ for Aprilia

Aleix Espargaro believes it would be “unbelievably good” if Scott Redding decided to take up Aprilia’s offer and become the factory’s test rider in 2019, and feels this aspect could bolster the team’s chances

The Catalan revealed he has been “pushing” technical director Romano Albesiano to bolster the test team, and alleviate the stress on its full-time riders and feels Redding could be the answer.

Aprilia announced the signing of Andrea Iannone for ’19 and ’20, the Italian essentially taking Redding’s place. Albesiano, however, is keen to retain Redding in a testing capacity, after stating his appreciation of his talent and working methods.

“For me, [it would be] unbelievably good,” said Espargaro. “In the last month I’ve been pushing Romano a lot to have a strong test rider, because with the calendar we have we can’t do many tests, because we are not a machine.

“As we saw with the Ducati, also with [Sylvain] Guintoli in Suzuki now, which I think is doing a great job, also Stefan Bradl went to Honda. All manufacturers have a really fast and good test rider, and we didn’t have any one.

“So I think if Scott finally stays with us for a test rider, I think it’s a really really good move for Aprilia, and he will help us a lot. I think it’s really important, and I said to Romano, the test rider we have, he has to do at least three or four races a season, that’s very, very important.

“Because you can test whatever you want, but the pace at which we are racing is another world, it’s completely different. For the motivation of the rider, and also for his ambition, to show everybody that he is not just lapping and he is competitive, it’s good if he can do at least three races per season, so I hope we can have a strong test rider and he can do some races as well.”

So a sitatuation similar to Pirro and Ducati or Mika Kallio and KTM would be ideal? “Yes, I think it’s the best thing, because you can have a happy rider, and motivated to be competitive, and every time Kallio comes here he is good, and when Michele comes here he is good,” said Espargaro.

“For me, it’s better if, for example Michele is always racing in the Italian GPs, for me this makes no sense, for me it’s better if the test rider can come at the tracks where you struggle a lot, because if he can test there and race there, you have a lot more data.

“To race on the tracks where the bike is already competitive, there’s no real meaning. So I think that from now on, we also, the riders and the project leaders have to organize very well the test team, because it’s a really big help.”

Espargaro also confirmed current crew chief Marcus Eschenbacher, with whom he has worked since joining Aprilia at the close of 2016, will depart for KTM at the close of this season.

“Yes, looks like this,” he said. “It has been talking a lot with Romano in the last days trying to build something new. Not just replacing the people, also we would like to change a little bit the way we have been working the last two years. It’s still very early, we have a lot of time, but I think we can improve on that area.

“I think we have to wait a little bit, but I think we need to be a little bit more organized, starting from myself as well. We know perfectly our problems and we will start to work for next season as soon as possible. It’s good, because we are not even in the summer, so we have plenty of time to prepare next season.

“It’s going to be a big loss, but life is like this, everybody is free to choose their future, to choose their project. For some reason he thinks that another project is better than this one, and if he will be more happy, I’m happy for him, because he’s a really good guy. But obviously it’s an important loss because he’s a really clever guy.”

Does he have a replacement in mind? Espargaro remained tight-lipped: “I have one name super clear in my mind, and I think we are close to close with him, but still very early.”