Mark this day, because today is the day that Aprilia Racing signed Andrea Iannone to its factory MotoGP – the Italian motorcycle brand sealing its fate to the Italian rider for the next two seasons.
The news had been expected, for quite some time, and today when we saw Suzuki Racing formally ending its relationship with Iannone, we knew it was only a matter of time before Aprilia announced its contract.
Iannone’s third factory team in the MotoGP paddock, it will be interesting to see what he can accomplish with his teammate Aleix Espargaró at Aprilia – a team that is still struggling for results in the MotoGP Championship.
“With Iannone, we have another highly talented and fast rider who is also demonstrating his value this season,” said Aprilia Racing Manager Romano Albesiano.
“His arrival is a sign of the Piaggio Group and Aprilia’s growing commitment to the MotoGP programme, where our bike has already demonstrated that it can rely on a valid technical base.”
“Now we need to stay focused on the 2018 season, beginning from the next GP of Barcelona. We have a strong team that has never stopped working hard.”
“We want to keep growing and take the RS-GP where it deserves to be this season, which is still long, with Aleix and Scott, speaking of whom, I wish to thank publicly for his great professionalism and for his consistently high level of commitment.”
Today’s news of course means that Scott Redding will leave the Aprilia Racing team at the end of the 2018 season. This is no surprise, as the British rider has had a miserable season on the Aprilia RS-GP so far.
In fact, the year’s results are so bad, Redding is widely expected to be without a MotoGP ride next season, with talk of him perhaps headed to the World Superbike Championship. More on that, as we get it.
Source: Aprilia Racing
