Oxley: Some people expected you to challenge for the 2023 title, but you didn’t, so how do you analyse last season?

Albesiano: The bike was competitive at almost every track, whereas in 2022 we had some tracks, like black holes, where we were clearly not competitive. Last season we went to those same tracks and were absolutely competitive. This is a process that we started in 2021, so we are covering the map more and more.

For example in 2022 we had a terrible crisis with grip at some of the races in Asia, like Chang [aka Buriram] and Sepang. Last season Chang was super-positive for us [Espargaró qualified on the front row].

What explains the grip crisis you had at the end of 2022?

It was a matter of grip, pure grip, but it’s difficult to explain why.

In 2023 we were also super-competitive at Spielberg [Red Bull Ring, where Viñales qualified second], which means we improved braking. So I think the process of closing the gap to the top is still in process.

Then we had some more ups and downs, which I’d say came from bad luck – injuries. For example, it wasn’t discussed much but the injury Aleix got in Mugello, where he crashed his bicycle and broke his feet, affected a few races. And then again at the end of the season, when he got hurt in Qatar. But from a purely technical point of view I’m happy.

What will it take to challenge for the title?

Being the leader at this moment is very difficult because Ducati is very strong – they are a great organisation, they have a great bike and a great number of bikes on track, which helps a lot.

And it’s not just that they get a lot of data from their eight bikes, it’s also the software that they have to crunch through that data very quickly.

This is very helpful for them. We started this process last year with our first satellite team [which doubled Aprilia’s data acquisition]. We are quite behind in this process but, OK, it’s important to have started it. We’ve already had some fruit from this, but again we had some horrible luck, with Miguel’s injuries.

l always remember the first corner of the first lap of the first GP of 2023 – the guy who was in first position was Miguel. Then after a few laps the worst thing happened [Oliveira was taken out by Marc Márquez]. And then again, two-thirds of the way through the season he was a bit nervous with all the discussion of him replacing another rider in another company [Márquez at Honda]. But he showed that when everything was right he was very competitive.

You said you had problems with grip at the end of 2022 but last season you got your first one-two at Catalunya, which is very slippery. So does your bike work better with less grip or more?

Honestly, many people say they understood everything, but honestly sometimes it looks like we are strong where the grip is poor and other times we need a lot of grip to be competitive. So it changes and we need to understand the facts. Maybe we are starting to understand these things better, but still not fully.

Usually the Aprilia is best at flowing circuits, not stop-and-go circuits…

But again, Maverick almost got pole at Spielberg and he did get pole at Valencia. And we were fast at Chang and Motegi, which are both big braking tracks. It’s not the bike itself – at least 50% is how you set the bike.

You usually run bigger discs than Ducati – to get the bike stopped?

This is related to the working temperature of the discs, to the way we cool them down: the position of the discs, more internal, more external, so it’s more of an aero thing, the way you cool the discs.