Marco Bezzecchi
Aprilia’s nightmare start to the 2025 MotoGP campaign was made significantly better when Marco Bezzecchi delivered their first victory for a year at the British Grand Prix.
The absence and rumours of Jorge Martin’s early Aprilia exit have been unsettling for a team who have struggled to score in the absence of their superstar. The workload shifting to Marco Bezzecchi’s behalf entirely was a tough gig.
He’ll have some backup soon when Martin does return, but there are no guarantees over whether he will remain with Aprilia beyond the end of the 2025 MotoGP season. It’s technically a new team for him still, so he will still have to adjust to their way of doing things within the garage.
Following yet another extended spell on the sidelines after a crash at the Grand Prix of Qatar, Martin’s first Aprilia appearance was ‘not expected’ since activating his exit clause this weekend at Misano. He rode two bikes at an All-Stars event, failing to ignore the allure of a return to action.
READ MORE: Massimo Rivola reveals Aprilia’s ‘priority number one’ amid Jorge Martin’s push for an early exit
Davide Brivio says Aprilia have ‘potential’ to close MotoGP gap to their rivals
Bezzecchi has said Aprilia’s bike is ‘incredible’ and lauded it for being so nice to ride before securing the first non-Ducati win of his career at Silverstone last time out. They probably have the second fastest bike on most days, but need some rider consistency to find that level of performance every weekend.
Ai Ogura was a pleasant surprise at the start of the season and has been a very dependable rookie for both Trackhouse and Aprilia. He might even be in with a chance of promotion to the factory team over the winter if Martin does leave.
His boss Davide Brivio sees the potential that is within the Aprilia bike currently and knows that there is potential within it to catch up to the dominant Ducati bikes in the future.
“I feel like we’ve improved, our bike is better, and we should be more competitive,” he told SPEEDWEEK. “But with Martin and Fernandez’s injuries at the start of the season, the entire responsibility falls on Bezzecchi’s shoulders; Ogura is still in the learning phase.
“That’s why it’s difficult to properly assess Aprilia. We have the potential to close the gap. We’re closer than we were in the past. But we’ll have to wait and see how things develop.”
Why Aprilia’s British Grand Prix performance was no surprise to many
Judging by their past exploits, Aprilia always seem to be fast around the long and unique Silverstone circuit. It just seems to suit their bikes for some reason.
The far trickier feat will be to remain consistent and emulate that at another track. The upcoming race at Aragon is an opportunity for them to stamp down some authority over their rivals, including Ducati.
Aprilia sent Martin a clear ‘message’ by winning in some style at Silverstone in the first race after it was revealed he wants to leave them.
Maybe his head will start to turn, convincing him to stay with them in the future if they can continue to win races in 2025.
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