Ahead Of The Sepang MotoGP, Aprilia Forced To Attract Its Semi-Automatic Kopling System

Maverick Vinales on Aprilia's motorbike (photo: Instagram Maverick12official)

JAKARTA - Aprilia was forced to withdraw the semi-automatic coupling system they had used before the Australian Grand Prix. This was done after complaints from competing MotoGP producers.

Maverick Vinales complained on Thursday 9 November ahead of the Malaysian Grand Prix that he could no longer use the latest launch system introduced by the Noale brand.

"It's detrimental to us. But I can't say much more," said the Spaniard.

Meanwhile, Aprilia's team officials chose to keep their mouths shut about it: "We are prohibited from talking about this."

Complaints from rival manufacturers have forced Aprilia to stop using the latest coupling specifications that have been integrated into the RS-GP since the Australian Grand Prix.

This system helped improve Aprilia's early skills, after Vinales and Espargaro had difficulties at the start of the season.

Some of the sources consulted suspect that complaints stem from KTM, which argues that the highlighted version of the coupling violates technical regulations, as operations depend too much on electronic control units.

Actually, this is a regulatory area that is currently under review, as it has some gray areas.

At first, the competition's technical manager gave the green light to the components, saying they didn't work fully automatically, but needed a racer input.

"You just need to look at the video how Aprilia came out, to understand that it is an automatic coupling, as used by Formula 1," a trajectory engineer in the Sepang paddock was quoted as saying by VOI from Motorsport.com.

The most surprising of these cases is that, since the start of the season, KTM has developed a new coupling system in their RC16 that has allowed them to make a major spike.

The system introduced by KTM in June allowed RC16 to be the best motor in grid launches.

"It's amazing that Binder started from the fourth row and at the first corner he led the race, it needs to be thoroughly investigated," said an experienced technician from Aprilia.

After complaints from the riders about the problem when starting on the grid, Aprilia designed a coupling that, not automatic but works as if automatic, causing the complaint and withdrawing the system.

KTM, in addition to complaining about Aprilia's coupling, asks the technical commission to modify current regulations so that their own couplings can be homologized, which works very similarly to Aprilia's coupling.

Meanwhile, Austrian manufacturers voluntarily removed the system from their bikes in the final race in Thailand, awaiting possible modifications to the regulations that would allow them to use it again.

While Aprilia and KTM were unable to use their new coupling, Ducati, which is a manufacturer that started working with carbon and electronic-assisted friction systems three years ago, currently has the best and fastest launch devices on the MotoGP grid.