'A MotoGP bike is an aeroplane that flies on the ground!'

“I worked together with the test-bench department to have something to manage the torque, to clean the peaks, to define the power reduction and how to manage the gearshifts, spark by spark.

“Riders would come into the garage, scared, so we tried to calm down the engine with the electronics, but at first there was no inertial platform, we had no gyros or accelerometers, so we didn’t know if the bike was leaning, if it was making a wheelie or anything else! So we would calm down the engine for one part of the track, but then it was no good in another part of the track.”

This was when Bonora helped lay the foundations of modern motorcycle electronics. Inertial platforms (IPs), which had been used in aeroplanes for decades, first appeared in Formula 1 cars in the 1990s where they managed traction control, active suspension and so on, so MotoGP’s first IPs came from F1.

“We developed our first inertial platform on the 2004 Cube – five centimetres square, with three gyros and three accelerometers inside. This was a big, big step, a massive step, massive, which wasn’t easy, because I’ve never seen a car do a wheelie or lean in the corners! A MotoGP bike is an aeroplane that flies on the ground, so from the gyros and accelerometers you have to calculate everything – the roll, the yaw, the lean. We took at least three years to find a way to stabilise the lean-angle calculations.

“That was an unbelievable era for the Aprilia Racing electronics department, because everybody who worked there developed themselves a lot and some things we learned then we still use now.

“Aprilia were the first in MotoGP with a fully ride-by-wire throttle system. It wasn’t easy because there was a disconnection between throttle opening and torque demand. The problem was maybe too much technology, but we had to start and put everything on the table. Typically the best way to smooth the engine is with the throttle [butterflies], because it makes everything smoother, but for fast power reduction [to avoid highside crashes] you have to use ignition advance, so we worked a lot on that.”

Aprilia’s first four-stroke project ended in 2004 when Piaggio bought the company and ended the Cube adventure. The bike had been the first MotoGP four-stroke to break the 200mph barrier [during the 2002 Italian Grand Prix at Mugello] but hadn’t managed to finish in the top five.

“From 2004 I worked on two-stroke engine control, so Aprilia were the first to bring traction control to two-strokes. We made our inertial platform smaller and smaller and brought it to the 250 in 2008.”

First time out with traction control, Alex Debon rode his RSW250 to pole position at the 2008 Qatar Grand Prix and a few weeks later scored his first victory, using TC to manage slick tyres on a damp track at Le Mans.

“In 2005 we started to see the future. We had close to 30 bikes in 125 GPs and close to 25 bikes in 250, so we developed our own ECU, for performance and for financial reasons, because we had so many bikes.

“Like always, teams asked for more performance, which meant having better management of the ignition spark, because in our 250, if you weren’t able to keep the ignition advance within zero point one degree, the engine stopped itself, so you had to have the maximum control of the spark, for maximum performance and to reduce detonation.

“We started from scratch with our ECU. We developed everything – the electronics, the firmware, the software, everything, working not only with our electronics department but also with our dynamic control department, so this was another step.”

And then another change. MotoGP replaced 250 GP bikes with Moto2 at the end of 2009, so Aprilia focused on making its new RSV4 superbike a winner in WSBK.

“We brought our 250 ECU and everything we had learned from the Cube and the 250 in terms of traction control to the RSV4, with Max Biaggi [who rode the RSV4 to the 2010 and 2012 WSBK titles].

“Initially it wasn’t easy. It was a pleasure to have Max because he was so demanding, which was the correct way to push. We worked a lot, in particular on the ride-by-wire, to smooth and clean maximum power. And we started to better understand where the bike was, through the inertial platform, whereas with the Cube we hadn’t known what situation the bike was in. We learned a lot in WSBK about what’s necessary to keep the bike on the ground all the time.

“In 2010 and 2011 we were thinking about jumping back into the MotoGP paddock, because the rules gave us the opportunity to develop our ART machine.”

The ART (for Aprilia Racing Team) was Aprilia’s answer to MotoGP’s low-cost CRT class, introduced in 2012 in the wake of the global financial crisis and end of tobacco sponsorship which had just 14 or 15 bikes starting some races in 2011. Aprilia leased ARTs to several privateer teams. The bike used an upgraded RSV4 WSBK engine in a prototype chassis and on its day could battle with Ducati’s struggling Desmosedici.

“The ART was good training and planning for MotoGP, so when we finished our official participation in WSBK, with Sylvain Guintoli winning the 2014 championship, we started another era in MotoGP.”

Aprilia returned to MotoGP with an official effort in 2015, still using upgraded WSBK engines, while building its first prototype engine since the Cube for 2016.

The first narrow-angle RS-GP V4 engine wasn’t competitive – it vibrated too much, so it didn’t make decent power, and the vibration was passed to the chassis, causing massive chatter.

Aprilia’s great moment came in 2019, when chief engineer Romano Albesiano decided to build a 90-degree V4 and former Ferrari Formula 1 sporting director Massimo Rivola became CEO of Aprilia Racing.

“From 2014 I was in charge of the electronics department at Aprilia, then when Rivola came to Aprilia, he told me I would have a different role, so he made me race manager. I moved from the technical side to a more team management side.

“I’m responsible for everything, regulating the procedures, with the mechanics and with the bikes. I also take care of the technical side, making sure everybody is working in the correct way, so I’m involved in all the technical meetings to know everything about the bike. I have to be sure that everything is at least at 100%, with no failures.”

Aprilia scored its first four-stroke MotoGP podium in 2021, took its first MotoGP win and led the riders’ championship (all with Aleix Espargaró) the following year and took its first one-two (with Bezzecchi and Raul Fernandez) at Valencia last November. It currently shares the constructors’ points lead with KTM but leads the championship, thanks to Bezzecchi’s Thai GP win.