Marco Bezzecchi
Jorge Martin’s pre-season crash has turned out to cause a lot more damage to Aprilia’s 2025 MotoGP season than first anticipated.
The reigning champion suffered a calamitous highside just laps into his Aprilia debut in Sepang and suffered multiple fractured bones.
Weeks later while racing back to fitness ahead of the season-opener in Thailand, he suffered another fall and has subsequently missed the following three MotoGP races.
Martin was seen in attendance at the Grand Prix of the Americas, donning his team’s official kit for the first time at an official event.
Following another tricky weekend, Martin will have been scratching his head at Aprilia after they failed to make Q2 in Texas.
The team may fear his plans for a comeback even more, as Martin made a worrying admission about his MotoGP return. He doesn’t plan to ride any motorcycles before hitting the track.
Kevin Schwantz expects Jorge Martin to get up to speed after MotoGP’s summer break
It’s going to take Martin some time before he returns to both full fitness and confidence. He won’t be challenging for victories straight away.
It may have been forgotten that he is on a very new bike too. After switching from Pramac over the winter, everything may be very alien to him.
Kevin Schwantz believes that the Spaniard could take up to nine races to recover from his accident fully. That would take him to the Czech Grand Prix just before the summer break.
“It’s always tough especially when you have missed two or three races. It takes a while once you get back on the bike to get everything back up to speed,” he told MotoGP’s After the Flag.
“When I raced, I felt like if I missed a race or two, typically it was three times that to get back to where I was when I got hurt. If I missed a race, I needed at least three to get back to that race pace, to be able to consistently get back to that fast level I had been at.”
READ MORE: Jorge Martin says one particular moment was ‘gnawing’ away at him before he decided to leave Ducati
Why Jorge Martin’s Grand Prix of the Americas return didn’t go to plan
Ahead of the third round of the MotoGP season in Austin, Martin hadn’t been seen at a racetrack since early February when he suffered his accident.
Martin’s Aprilia appearance didn’t go to plan because it was meant to be a surprise for his team at the Circuit of the Americas.
Instead, the information was leaked on Thursday, but his colleagues will have appreciated the lengths he went to to support them.
Martin had major ‘doubts’ about his MotoGP return after seeing what Ai Ogura has managed to achieve on a satellite Aprilia bike.
He’s unsure whether he will be able to replicate that sort of form. It may take him some time before he is capable of doing so.
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