Although Maverick Viñales will not get on his bike and no one will replace him in the Spanish GP, there will finally be one more bike than usual thanks to the “wildcards” that Aprilia and Yamaha have entered in the Spanish event.
The first of the European rounds of the season is usually the first in which we see the participation of a guest driver and this year has also been the case. Taking advantage of the concessions, the two antagonists on the grid will line up their test drivers in Jerez.
On the one hand we will have Lorenzo Savadori at the controls of the Aprilia RS-GP, the same one that occupies the first two positions in the hands of Marco Bezzecchi and Jorge Martín. On the other hand, just the opposite, the motorcycle that closes the grid, the Yamaha M1 that will take to the track with the Spanish Augusto Fernández.
While Aprilia works to increase the advantage or in the worst case maintain it, Yamaha seeks that long-awaited progression that will make them fight for something more than closing the classification each session.
Why is the Spanish GP the perfect time for a wildcard?
In MotoGP everything is measured to the millimeter and it is for this reason that the decisions made by manufacturers when choosing a “wildcard” are not random. And the fact is that after the Spanish GP the first day of official testing will take place, so being able to also work during the weekend means that the test drivers and the team have four days of work in real conditions.
Because far from the “glamour” of racing, the work of test teams is more mundane and solitary. Normally there are not many motorcycles on the track, there are no real references of maximum performance and even if different lines are worked, they are not 100% the same because even the tire arrangement can vary.
Why don’t other brands choose Jerez to make the “wildcard”? This is due, in this case, to different reasons. Ducati, for example, does not have the option of guest riders as concessions. Meanwhile, Honda has Aleix Espargaró injured and it is possible that Nakagami has been focused solely on the evolution of the 800 for some time.
To this we must add that Pol Espargaró, who has acted as a substitute and has ridden some “wildcard” with KTM last season, is injured. Of course, even if everyone had wanted to, they could not have participated at the same time because the regulations only leave three wildcard places available per GP.
