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Aprilia Debuts New Seamless Gearbox This Weekend at Mugello

Aprilia Racing Team Gresini takes one more step in the development of the new bike they prepare to line up on the grid in 2016. We're talking about a new seamless transmission that will be present on the Aprilia RS-GP starting with this week's round at Mugello.
Alvaro Bautista aboard the 2015 Aprilia RS-GP 1 photo
Photo: Aprilia
The new technology will be introduced during the home round for the all-Italian racing outfit, but the nationality of the circuit has nothing to do with Aprilia's development plans.

Aprilia Racing manager Romano Albesiano says that the seamless transmission has been in development for some time now, and has successfully been tested by Alvaro Bautista at the post-race test at Jerez. Given the positive feedback Aprilia got from #19, the team decided to test the transmission in racing conditions in the very next race.

Both Aprilia machines get the seamless gearbox plus more aerodynamic upgrades

While Bautista was putting the gearbox through its paces, his teammate Marco Melandri was testing a new chassis version and a new swingarm. Apparently, both the chassis and the swingarm got the "fit to race" approval. Albesiano adds that Aprilia will also introduce more aerodynamic changes to the bike, and hopefully, all the modifications will help the team make a solid step forward.

Mugello, with everything that comes with a home round, represents another step in this season of growth for Aprilia. It is a particularly important occasion because right here on the Tuscan track our seamless gear shift system will make its début, available for both our riders. The positive feedback Bautista provided after the tests at Jerez immediately following the Spanish Grand Prix convinced us to speed up development on this solution in order to have it ready to race as soon as possible.

As important as the new transmission is, in any case it will not be the only new feature. We have prepared various changes in terms of aerodynamics and chassis as well with respect to the bike that started off the season. All of this is part of our path of improvement which we hope to successfully move forward at Mugello
,” Albesiano adds.

Aprilia Racing officials more than once said that 2015 would be "sacrifice year" as the team plans to implement some of the new technologies expected to be present in the 2016 prototype. These technologies, among which the seamless gearbox is only one, will use the 2015 RS-GP as a testing platform for actual races. However, no spectacular results were envisaged for the current season.

So far, Alvaro Bautista is struggling in the lower zones of the wold standing, being 20th with only three points, while Marco Melandri has not managed to earn any.
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