MotoGP – Aprilia wants to know why Ducati added three wings to the tyre spoiler

Bruno Gomes

March 12, 2019

While we are still waiting for the official results of the MotoGP race in Qatar to be homologated, after four manufacturers decided to protest against the new rear tyre spoiler used by Ducati on the factory bikes of Andrea Dovizioso and Danilo Petrucci, as well as on the Alma Pramac Ducati of Jack Miller, Massimo Rivola, new manager of Aprilia Racing, explained what is at stake in this protest.

If it’s true that Race Direction decided to don’t accept the protest, Honda, Suzuki, KTM, and Aprilia also decided to appeal to the FIM Court, and a final decision if the new rear tyre spoiler of the Ducati is legal or not is yet to be known.

Aprilia Racing manager Massimo Rivola, with years of experience on technical rules from Formula 1, spoke to Italian website GPOne about all that has happened before and after the Qatari race last Sunday.

According to Rivola, “On February 19 Danny Aldridge (MotoGP Technical Director) sent an explanation that said we were allowed to use [the rear tyre spoiler] in case it rained. On March 2, he then sent another note on this subject, explaining that this device should not have any aerodynamic effect at all! We have demonstrated that in that area (in front of the rear tyre) the air is moving really fast, and when the air is moving so fast all we need is a small wing to create an aerodynamic effect. Why did they install three wings? It’s the classic shape of a tri-plane”.

If in fact the rear tyre spoiler is used to cool down the tyre, stopping it from overheating, like Ducati claims, the Aprilia Racing manager goes even further, and asks what might be an important question to solve this case: “Why use this on a track like Losail where the problem is precisely the cold temperatures at night?”.

With the final decision in the hands of the FIM Court of Appeals, Massimo Rivola is confident that the decision will be against Ducati and the MotoGP race results will be altered. For the Italian manager of Aprilia Racing, “We don’t have to prove nothing, we don’t need to show that the Ducati spoiler is used to create an aerodynamic effect. They are the ones who need to show that that part doesn’t have any aerodynamic effect! No one adds a single gram of weight to a vehicle if that doesn’t improve performance”.

The appeal from Honda, Suzuki, KTM, and Aprilia was delivered yesterday to the FIM Court, and the final decision on this case will still take a few days to be made public.