Maverick Viñales dives straight into Official test duties in Italy today after completing his first full week as a competitive Aprilia rider with two races under his belt.

Returning to the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, the recent recruit remains positive about his new surroundings and eager for more after finishing the San Marino GP in 13th, just 21 seconds from race winner, Pecco Bagnaia.

“Well, honestly this weekend we learn a lot,” Viñales explained after his second race on the RS-GP. “It’s clear that we have to keep working because I don’t feel very comfortable on the bike - especially for qualifying and then we had a few troubles during the race. But however, the positive point of the bike is that the tyres have a good grip, good consistency, this is very important and the rhythm was good, I’m quite happy. Wasn’t perfect but was quite good. So we keep running, understanding. I tried to ride on a different position during the laps on the bike to see what the bike does, so just trying to understand the direction to go faster and faster.

“I’m satisfied. It’s a new challenge,” he continued. “Surely it’s a very different challenge, bring me out of my comfort zone for sure because it’s a totally different bike, so it’s much more difficult to ride and to keep doing a better position. But we started 27 seconds away, today 21. We improve step by step and this is the most important point. Now we have two days, hope the weather stay okay and we can try, much, much more things because right now, with the bike we have, is difficult for me to ride, so we need to keep working.

“I feel my potential with this bike can be much higher, in terms that the bike has more power and I can stop better the bike.” He said of his future at Aprilia. “But still there is points where I don’t understand too much the bike so I need laps, I need laps. We didn’t use the hard and it’s many points where still we need to learn and to trust on the bike.

“It’s important these two days, especially here in Misano, this test, to try a very different bike,” he said turning his attention to the new week.

“Right now, I feel that the bike is very nervous, especially in the first laps, and then as soon you want to push a little bit more, start to move a lot. So, yeah, there is a few things we need to correct, that when we correct we’re gonna go a lot down on the lap time. Right now we are learning, and I’m learning. Every race I learn a little bit more, I learned the bike, you know 27 laps in a row give you enough time to change the riding style, change the braking and I keep trying on the race different things.

“At the end this is a bike I only ride for two races, so I also need to learn a lot but yeah, I need a little bit of help in a few areas of the track, where we need to find a solution. For me it’s very positive, at the end of the day we keep riding well and it’s gonna come step by step. It’s not gonna come in one day so we need to work hard.”

When discussing his preference of 2021 over 2022 for the upcoming test schedule, the Spaniard was aware of the importance of both to his current situation.

“I would like to keep focusing in this season,” he confirmed, “because I need to find a better confidence with the bike, and especially a better stability, this is important. We need to spend time on setup, step by step. It’s clear that we have to try a few things of the new year, because the bike has to be done now, not later on, we need time, this is the priority, but I need to feel more comfortable to go faster. So, we need half and half - one day for one thing, another day for the other.”