After quitting the 250cc series of the FIM World Championship a year back – a championship that turned into the current Moto2 Series – due to new engine rules that favored Honda, Aprilia turned focus on the World Superbike Championship completely. Consequently, they won both the constructors and the riders' crowns in 2010 with the help of former MotoGP rider Max Biaggi.
Since the FIM announced new regulations for the 2012 MotoGP campaign, including the introduction of 1000cc production-based engines, it was believed this would create a good environment for current manufacturers that compete in the WSBK to shift focus on a potential MotoGP programme. Aprilia, apparently, is not one of them.
“You need to consider that Aprilia is a manufacturer that has reaped a lot of success in the series it has participated in,” said Aprilia technical director Luigi dall'Igna in a recent interview with Italy's highly authoritative Autosprint magazine.
“To race in a world championship with a bike that is not on the same level as our rivals is not the right spirit to face such an important commitment, so I think that in 2012 we won't be in the world motorcycling elite, and we won't participate in MotoGP,” he added.
Of course, one can only hope Aprilia will reconsider its MotoGP-related plans after the 2012 season, since dall'Igna underlined the fact that the Italian bike maker will not consider such a programme in 2012 only. The Italian company's last MotoGP campaign happened in 2004, after which it settled for the feeder 125cc and 250cc series.
Despite leaving the Moto2 Series for good, Aprilia retains its motor racing programme in the 125cc class, where it finished runner-up to Derbi in 2010.
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