Source: Supplied.

Aprilia Racing Team Gresini has launched the 2016 specification Aprilia RS-GP machine that Alvaro Bautista and Stefan Bradl will compete aboard in this year’s MotoGP World Championship.

The radical new V4 is making its first official on-track appearance during this week’s final pre-season tests in Qatar, an entirely redesigned prototype based on the factory’s premier class comeback last year.

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.

“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,” explained Roberto Colaninno, CEO and managing director of the Piaggio Group.

“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? With our own motorcycle brands, the group has won 32 out of the 104 world championships ever won in its history in just 12 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.”

With 104 World Championships in its collection (54 Aprilia, 15 Moto Guzzi, 21 Derbi, 14 Gilera) the Piaggio Group is the most victorious motorcycle group of all times. Aprilia, born into racing, is the true sports standard-bearer for the Piaggio Group.

Bautista and Bradl made a fundamental contribution to the development of the new project as they conducted the 2015 ‘laboratory season’ on the track. The pair 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 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.”

During the opening day of three at Losail on Wednesday night, Bradl was 19th and Bautista 22nd during ongoing evaluations of the 2016 RS-GP package. The series will commence in two weeks time at the same venue.