Aprilia New 2016 RS-GP MotoGP


The new 2016 Aprilia RS-GP débuts at Losail. From 2 to 4 March the Italian V4 will be on the track for the first time in an official event, the final IRTA tests before the start of the 2016 Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing season.

This will kick off the 2016 MotoGP season for Aprilia Racing. For the Italian team this is a fundamental step in the project that began in 2015, since the new Aprilia RS-GP is not an evolution of the previous model but an entirely redesigned prototype based on the knowledge gained during the season last year, characterised by experimentation and data acquisition. The new bike is already a milestone in the young and victorious Aprilia racing history: in fact, it is the first true MotoGP bike, entirely designed, developed and built by Aprilia in its every component, beginning with the engine, a unit characterised by its exclusive narrow V4 architecture, the same one that distinguishes the entire supersport line from Noale.


Roberto Colaninno, CEO and Managing Director of the Piaggio Group, had this to say about the new challenge: “From a Group strategy point of view, Aprilia Racing is not just the Aprilia racing team: it is the most advanced technological experimentation and development platform for the entire Piaggio Group from which all of our products and brands benefit. For this reason, from this 2016 season the Piaggio Group logo stands out prominently on the bikes’ livery. In fact, the technology developed for racing operations is not intended only for racing, but it also serves the purpose of testing innovative solutions that will then be applied to road-legal products, from supersport bikes all the way to scooters, with the end goal of improving our products in terms of performance, safety and the ability to provide our customers with riding pleasure and fun”.

“On the competition level, how can I not remind you of the important results we’ve achieved so far?” continued Roberto Colaninno. “With our own motorcycle brands, the Group has won 32 out of the 104 world championships ever won in its history in just twelve years. An amazing 28 of these titles were won in one decade by Aprilia, even with riders of the calibre of Max Biaggi and Jorge Lorenzo. The others went to the Gilera brands – with the never-forgotten Marco Simoncelli – and to Derbi, which, among other things, christened an extraordinary champion like Marc Marquez. I would like to wish Albesiano and his team, the riders Bautista and Bradl, and the entire Aprilia Racing staff all the best and a season that will give them and all of the Piaggio Group reasons to be satisfied.”


Alvaro Bautista and Stefan Bradl made a fundamental contribution to the development of the new project as they conducted the 2015 “laboratory-season” on the track. Alvaro and Stefan had the chance to familiarise themselves with the 2016 RS-GP during the previous private tests on the Losail circuit, immediately recognising its great potential. The brand new technical package, which is joined by the new tyre supplier and the controlled electronics package, requires an obvious fine-tuning phase before we can arrive at a good level, but the feelings we got during the first two tests make us solidly optimistic about the new season.

“The upcoming season will be a very important one for us”, said Aprilia Racing Manager, Romano Albesiano. “The new bike reflects recent Aprilia Racing tradition, reinterpreting every concept without compromise, and it is the most ambitious project our racing department has ever undertaken. The first responses from testing have been positive. We received very positive feedback from both riders specifically from a dynamics point of view. In any case, this is the beginning of a long path and we are well aware of the inevitable difficulties that come along with any new project.”

Albesiano had this to say about the riders, Bautista and Bradl, both confirmed for the 2016 season: “We can count on the contribution of an expert team and two highly motivated riders like Alvaro and Stefan, who immediately realised the importance of our development plan and the great efforts put forth by the racing department. I believe that, after the initial fine-tuning phase, we’ll be able to set our sights on respectable results.”