The successes and insights of Aprilia in the world championship, including a Brembo solution that is now indispensable on any sports street bike.
One victory in 2022, two in 2023, and another this year: Aprilia is proving to be one of the most competitive bikes in modern MotoGP, and the only one capable of challenging Ducati’s dominance with more than one rider.
These four Sunday GP victories, along with an equal number in the Sprint, are credited to two Spanish riders: Aleix Espargaró and Maverick Viñales.
The first of these dates back to April 3, 2022: Espargaró won the Argentine GP after an exciting duel with Jorge Martin.
A historic success because never before had the Noale-based company won a MotoGP race, leaving behind the major Japanese brands, as well as top names like Ducati and KTM.
That day, as well as during the other triumphs, the winning Aprilia was equipped with Brembo GP4 aluminum calipers, entirely machined from solid, with a radial mount and 4 pistons, featuring an amplification system that increases braking torque.
This caliper is the direct descendant of one of the greatest innovations introduced by Aprilia in the world championship, thanks to the collaboration with Brembo. An incredible story that dates back to a period when Aprilia was breaking records in the categories leading up to the 500, which since 1949, the year of the first World Championship, has been the flagship of racing motorcycles.
To be honest, and speaking of the 500 class, Aprilia hadn’t managed to win a race even when the premier class was represented by the unruly 500cc two-strokes, despite starting to compete in the category as early as 1994.
The choice of the technicians led by Jan Witteveen initially fell on a 400cc twin-cylinder, much more agile and lighter than the four-cylinder rivals but also less powerful.
The brilliant Dutchman, who was the technical director at the time, explained his unconventional choices more than once: “We try to beat the Japanese using different weapons. If we copied their characteristics, having fewer resources, we would always be losers. I always focus on Italian and European technology.
Among these, Brembo brakes were a must, appearing on the first Aprilia race bike in 1985 with Loris Reggiani: the AF1 250 featured cutting-edge technical solutions, from the aluminum deltabox frame to the Rotax engine with rotary valve intake and digital electronic ignition.
The Italian rider appreciated these choices: “Braking was the best weapon, I could brake very late because I had a low center of gravity.”
The fruitful collaboration between Aprilia and Brembo continued in the following years, so much so that Brembo brakes were also mounted on the 250 that won the 1987 San Marino GP with the same Reggiani, ahead of the Japanese giants, thanks to a double overtaking maneuver at the Carro braking point, where he passed the Yamahas in front of him, which only saw him again after the finish line.
It was the first of 294 GPs won on track by Aprilia from 1991 to 2011, almost equally divided between 125 and 250 categories, in which it won 19 Riders’ titles and as many Constructors’ titles, always with Brembo.
The first was won by Alessandro Gramigni in 1992 in the 125 class thanks to two victories, two second places, and two third places, with a 16-point lead over the late Fausto Gresini. In the 1990s, Aprilia produced just over 50,000 vehicles a year, less than one-twentieth of Honda and Yamaha, which therefore had unattainable budgets for competitions.
For Aprilia, the funds to develop new racing models came from the sales of race replicas, starting with the AF1 125 project 108 of 1987, the first European bike with a single-sided swingarm as standard, also with Brembo brakes, which, combined with colorful graphics, made teenagers of the time very happy.
The trust placed by Aprilia in Brembo and the relentless search for technical solutions that could give it an advantage led in 1997 to a historic milestone for competitions, the radial-mounted brake caliper. An unprecedented component that was tested by Marcellino Lucchi in the Jerez tests in February 1998 and, given the positive response, was introduced on the 250s of Valentino Rossi, Loris Capirossi, and Tetsuya Harada.
In addition to the difficulty of manufacturing this braking component at the time, which benefited axial-mounted calipers that seemed unbeatable, another problem had to be overcome. The prototypes of the radial calipers were not compatible with the forks used by Aprilia, so Brembo engineers were called in to provide support in designing the fork connection brackets.
And to think that many years earlier, hoping to replicate the success of the radial caliper introduced in Formula 1, Brembo proposed a similar solution for Grand Prix motorcycles to the technical manager of the Honda team. The Japanese technician, a highly experienced guru, was, however, bewildered, considering radial calipers unnecessary if not useless.
The 13 victories in 14 GPs achieved by Aprilia in 1998 in the 250 class earned Capirossi the world champion title, Rossi second place, and Harada third place, prompting Brembo to develop a radial caliper for the premier class.
The new caliper debuted in the 500 class in 1999, with Aprilia and Harada securing a pole position and two podiums. In 2000, Jeremy McWilliams achieved a pole position and two podiums with the Aprilia 500 equipped with Brembo radial calipers.
The birth of MotoGP, however, brought Aprilia back to the starting line because the RS Cube did not achieve great results. A great pity because, thanks to collaboration with Formula 1 studios, the Noale prototype was the first bike to adopt pneumatic valves, traction control, and ride-by-wire, as well as using Brembo radial calipers, which had become the standard in the category.
The modest performances led the management to suspend participation in MotoGP competitions at the end of 2004. Moreover, in the early 2010s, with the exclusion of two-stroke bikes from the World Championship, replaced by Moto3 and Moto2, Aprilia stopped competing in the World Championship, preferring to focus on Superbike.
The turnaround happened in 2015, but competitiveness only arrived in 2021, thanks to the new RS-GP, the choices of technical director Romano Albesiano, the management of team manager Massimo Rivola, and the talent of Espargaró.
In 2021, the Spaniard brought Aprilia back to the podium after a 21-year drought, a prelude to the performances of recent years, strengthened by the signing of Viñales, who had already won in MotoGP with Suzuki and Yamaha. And with the arrival of Jorge Martin starting in 2025, Aprilia will finally be able to challenge for the world title, but always and only with Brembo brakes.