Aprilia’s Technical Director Sterlacchini on AI: “We don’t use it at all”

When the MotoGP engines are reduced from 1,000 to 850 cc in 2027, it is not just the displacement that will disappear. “If you go from 1,000 to 850, you lose around 50 PS,” estimated Fabiano Sterlacchini on the “Mig Babol” podcast hosted by former GP rider Andrea Migno. For Aprilia’s head of engineering, this isn’t a case of losing out; rather, priorities are shifting, as he explained.

“Today, the motorbikes are really at the engine’s limit for about 15 to 20 per cent of the time during a lap – the throttle valves are then fully open. If 50 PS are lost, that figure rises to 30 to 40 per cent.” As a result, raw engine power is regaining importance: “How important is it today to find an extra PS from the engine? Not very, because I spend very little time utilising full power. From next season onwards, this will be twice as important.”

The comparison: an orchestra and a MotoGP team

Sterlacchini sees such strategic decisions as the core of his work, which he regards as ‘90 to 95 per cent’ technical and only to a small extent sporting. He compares the overall picture to an orchestra: “You can have very good musicians, but the drummer might be playing too loudly and drowning out the wind section. And perhaps one is playing rock whilst another is performing a classical symphony.” However, conducting involves more than just keeping the musicians in sync: “At some point, he has to say: ‘We’re missing a piano; I want an oboe.’ What he means is: ‘We need to invest in this rather than that.’”

Sterlacchini sees plenty of potential in aerodynamics for motorbikes

For him, there’s a simple reason why aerodynamics currently dominates everything: when it comes to the engine, after so many years using the same design, there’s hardly anything left to gain. That makes the field alongside it all the more significant. “In my opinion, when it comes to aerodynamics in motorbikes, we’re between 30 and 50 years behind Formula 1. There’s still a lot to discover.”

There is also the rider himself to explore. “When a rider steps out from behind the fairing or stretches out a leg, he generates a force that is offset from the centreline of the motorbike,” he explained. When braking, this resistance helps “to turn the motorbike in and steer it into the bend – like a rudder, only with air instead of water”. Until about ten years ago, nobody had even thought of this.

Sterlacchini is aware that the competition is now taking inspiration from Aprilia. However, he doesn’t believe in simply copying: “You must never be someone who mimics and copies, because then you’ll always be too late. And you must never be too proud to copy.” An attachment at the rear that works on one motorbike might have no effect on another, “because it doesn’t work in harmony with the rest.”

MotoGP and AI – at Aprilia, they think for themselves

Sterlacchini illustrated why aerodynamics on a motorbike are so much more challenging than on a car with a figure: on the underbody of a Formula 1 car, a single detail can easily generate 40 kilos more downforce. “I don’t think there’s a single part on our motorbike that can generate 40 kilos. Perhaps not even the entire aerodynamic system.”

Artificial intelligence could help by making the interrelationships visible – “ones that, with the knowledge we have today, you cannot translate into an equation with all the physical parameters.” He doesn’t understand the hype surrounding AI, and they don’t use it either. “We don’t use it at all. Everyone uses it, everyone talks about it, it’s being applied to everything. You’d have to give it a dimension.” He also issued a warning: “If we end up with a problem caused by human uselessness, then perhaps we’ve created it ourselves.”