Wednesday, November 30 2011
There has been official confirmation that Spanish team, Aspar, will be racing in the 2012 MotoGP World Championship. Racing for the team will be Randy de Puniet and Aleix Espargaro; de Puniet tested one of the team’s hybrid Aprilia machines last week at Jerez.
Aspar have not yet made a full statement about the machines they will use, but it’s thought that alongside using the Aprilia made RSV4 engines, Aprilia will in fact make the completed machine.
The Aspar- Aprilia arrangement follows Aspar boss Jorge Martinez’s abandonment of plans to lease two factory Ducati GP12 machines in 2012 as a result of budget issues.
Martinez: “We are really happy because we find ourselves with a brand new challenge ahead of us and we have full faith that CRT is the future of MotoGP, which is why we are amongst the first to join this initiative.
“As a team we continue to grow and after having a single rider for our first two seasons in MotoGP we will now have two in Randy de Puniet and Aleix Espargaró. I am pleased to welcome Randy back to the team; he was already with us back in 2005 and we have good memories. Aleix was also with us in 2009 although it was only for two races.
“We are sure that this will be a successful project with the riders we have but also with the engine supplier, which will be Aprilia. We always wanted to stick with them for this project because of the fabulous relationship we have with them and their pedigree in the smaller classes.
“Our objective this season is to be the best CRT team and to prepare for another step forward in 2013″.
