Warmth has been a problem for Aprilia riders for a while throughout races with excessive temperatures, with the marque testing a cooling tube on the fairing in current occasions.
Sunday’s Thailand GP, gained by Jorge Martin, was a sweltering affair, with Espargaro taking the chequered flag in fifth – although he was demoted to eighth after turning into the primary rider to get a penalty beneath the brand new tyre stress guidelines.
However talking after the race, Espargaro admits some ‘panic’ set in in the course of the last few laps as he struggled to breathe, whereas team-mate Maverick Vinales pulled out of the race as a result of warmth from the bike.
“Yeah, it was a tough race,” he stated.
“Sincerely, I couldn’t breathe. It was the toughest race of my life. Within the final three laps I used to be panicking as a result of I attempted to breathe and I couldn’t.
“So, I used to be tremendous, tremendous anxious. Yeah, once I got here into the pits I assumed I used to be going to die, I couldn’t breathe.
“It has been a extremely powerful race for me to be targeted. However for me, it’s like right this moment’s race is an efficient instance of my championship.
“We’re place quantity 5 by way of riders, the 4 riders who completed in entrance of me have been quicker this yr and so they have higher bikes than mine, that’s for positive.
“So, for me, right this moment’s race is a pure instance of my championship.”
Picture by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Aleix Espargaro, Aprilia Racing Workforce
Espargaro, who referred to as the 2023 Thai GP the “worst race of my profession”, added: “[It was] all the warmth of the bike, of the chassis, of the engine, every part, it’s coming from the center – just like the gas tank – and goes into the lungs.
“And we couldn’t breathe. Maverick [Vinales] stopped the race as a consequence of this, he couldn’t breathe.
“So, he went into the pits and Raul instructed me in the course of the race he couldn’t breathe. So, he determined to cease the tempo and lose 10s within the final a part of the race.”
Espargaro says he doesn’t know why the Aprilia provides off the intense warmth it does, and notes that RNF’s Raul Fernandez instructed him he had no such points on the KTM final season.
“They’re making an attempt issues however for the second nothing is working,” Espargaro stated.
“We tried a tube [for cool air], we tried it within the warm-up and it’s not giving something. I don’t know why the bike provides this temperature, it’s loopy.
“I can’t bear in mind the final time I rode one other bike that was not Aprilia, it was seven years in the past, so I don’t bear in mind.
“However particularly from Maverick coming from Yamaha or Raul coming from KTM, I spoke with him and he stated that he had no warmth final season. So, it’s very unusual.”
He added: “It at all times occurs. Each single yr in the identical circuits from the final 4 seasons. However right this moment was actually, actually on the restrict.”