Michael Scott | June 5, 2024
Cycle News In The Paddock
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Fine Margins on the Long Walk to Stardom
Beyond all the tears and hugging, Aleix Espargaro’s retirement love-in at the Barcelona GP revealed something about close margins.
The stopwatch and on-track action demonstrate the fineness of those margins between the motorcycles in tenths and hundredths of seconds.
Aleix’s long walk to stardom reveals how the same margins separate riders. The difference between serial success and also-ran despair is a hair’s breadth or a razor’s edge. Upon which the elder of two racing brothers balanced for two full decades.
Aleix Espargaro’s long walk to stardom is about to come to an end after he announced that he’ll be retiring from racing at the end of the 2024 season. Photo: Gold & Goose
It took more than 300 races, 19 years, and more than 10 different teams, in every grand prix variation except Moto3, for Aleix Espargaro to achieve the full respect of fans and rivals—284 starts before his first win in any class in Argentina in 2022. That was from pole position, and he was a serious title contender until it all went wrong at the last flyaway rounds. In 2023, a double Sprint and Sunday win in Catalunya cemented his status.
From out of the shadows, after ushering Aprilia to the top step of the podium, Aleix was finally to be taken seriously.
Why did it take so long?
For one, too many false starts. In 2005, an undistinguished year in 125s preceded four more in 250—a single fourth in 42 starts. If his results were nothing special, nor were the teams he rode for. In 2009, it got worse: his Campetella squad withdrew before the season began. A pattern was emerging.
So, too, was a rider capable of big surprises. Unemployed, he was available as a two-race substitute for Pramac Ducati in MotoGP. He scored points in both and set the fifth-fastest lap at Misano.
It earned him the Pramac seat for 2010, but another undistinguished season masked his promise, and he was dropped.
Now 22, Aleix was picked up for Sito Pons’s Moto2 team. As injury robbed stunning newcomer Marc Marquez of a maiden title, a single podium put Aleix 12th overall, one point ahead of younger brother Pol, a class rookie.
In 2012, a salvation of a sort with Aprilia. But it was not a sought-after ride. To curb factory-team excesses and boost grid numbers Dorna had opened MotoGP to production-based CRT (Claiming Rule Teams) bikes. Aprilia took advantage of their successful Superbike. But not under their own name. It was called ART for Aprilia Racing Team.
Aleix and the ART easily dominated the outclassed rag-tag CRT field for two years, finishing 11th and 12th. If that wasn’t saying much, it was all he could do.
It secured a future but no factory ride. He spent 2014 with Forward Yamaha—using leased factory equipment in another short-lived grid-filling “Open” category. It was the next best thing, and it went well—a best-yet seventh overall, pole at Assen, and first podium, second in a bike-swap wet race at Aragon.
Then Suzuki returned for 2015, and Aleix’s long-sought factory contract dream finally came true, alongside rising star Maverick Vinales.
Aleix claimed 10 top-10 finishes that year with a best of sixth, outpointing Maverick for another 11th overall.
Things could only get better.
But not for Aleix. Vinales claimed Suzuki’s first new-generation win, but to a bewildered Aleix’s outspoken dismay, he was dropped at the end of 2016.
Aprilia had rejoined MotoGP in 2015 and was struggling for results and to attract strong riders. But it was a full factory team. Aleix jumped at it.
Success took five more years with a management reshuffle and a major redesign. Aleix was there through the thin times and forged a relationship of mutual respect and obvious affection. The results remained disappointing, but the bike got better.
Not least because of the experienced Aleix’s input.
The chassis improved, and aerodynamics eventually overtook Ducati. Most importantly, 2020’s new engine switched from a trademark narrow-angle (72-degree) V4 to the class-standard 90 degrees.
There were teething problems, but by 2022, the RS GP was, “The best bike I’ve ever ridden,” he said. At only the third round, Aleix took his and the marque’s first victory in Argentina, beating Martin, the Suzukis of Rins and Mir (satisfying) and eventual champion Bagnaia in the dry. He led the championship and stayed in contention until the closing stages.
A sweet-handling bike, especially good at fast, sweeping corners, brought two more wins since then at Silverstone and Catalunya, plus two Sprints at the latter track.
Another fillip was his new teammate, Vinales. Your teammate is always the first person you must beat. Reviving their earlier Suzuki partnership, Aleix was his mentor, and Maverick, recovering from his Yamaha slump, was an added spur.
Aleix, 35 in July, has called a stop at the end of the year, ending the career of a rider who for years was easy to forget and hard to take seriously. Or, put another way—it is easy to underestimate by the narrowest of margins.CN
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