Marco Bezzecchi
Jorge Martin finally completed a race weekend in the 2025 MotoGP season in Brno, a week after his statement that told the world of his intentions to honour his contract with Aprilia Racing.
Jorge Martin held an ’emotional’ behind-the-scenes meeting with Aprilia to notify them of his intentions ahead of the Czech Republic Grand Prix.
The contract saga involving the Spaniard and Aprilia started earlier in the season. Martin was unhappy with the direction of Aprilia’s development of the RS-GP25 and wanted to trigger a performance clause which allowed him to leave the team if he wasn’t in championship contention.
The ‘ugly episode’ may have harmed Aprilia’s chances of retaining Martin in the future, with the team reportedly having no confidence in being able to keep the Spaniard at the team in the long term.
Carlo Pernat is ‘absolutely certain’ that Max Biaggi had something to do with Jorge Martin’s backdown
In an interview with MowMag, MotoGP manager Carlo Pernat detailed his theory on what led to Martin’s U-turn with Aprilia after being so adamant that he wanted to depart the team whilst he was still under contract.
“Maybe I’m being a little mischievous,” Pernat started, “but I think that helmet swap between Martin and Biaggi in Brno was a way of saying things without saying too much. It’s not that they wanted to hide it, far from it, also because there’s nothing to hide and it’s actually a wonderful thing.”
“As far as I know, Biaggi has been very close to Jorge in recent months, calling him often, accompanying him at the Aprilia All-Stars and at Misano, seeking a meeting with him.
“As a young rider, a champion, when you feel pampered by someone who is a legend and who has won six world titles, it certainly opens his ears much more than when anyone else speaks to him.
Carlo Pernat thinks Max Biaggi acted on his own accord and not at the instruction of Aprilia
Biaggi has served as a brand ambassador to Aprilia since 2018, and whilst he isn’t officially part of the engineering team, it has been noted that the former rider uses his championship-winning experience to offer some guidance to the current riders.
Pernat believes Aprilia didn’t explicitly hand Biaggi the task of reining Martin back in, but instead went off his own accord to get the 2024 world champion’s mind back where it needed to be.
“I don’t think Aprilia gave him that task, or if they did, they were very good at it. I think it’s more that he felt like putting his own spin on it to try to understand if and how the two paths that had objectively separated could reunite.” Pernat continued.
“Then, the rest was done by Martìn and Aprilia, talking and comparing notes and understanding that there was still a future beyond the walls or the statements of one or the other.
“As a rider, he knew that the boy, in that moment, shouldn’t be bothered further, but simply supported in some way.”
Max Biaggi previously stated that he saw bits of himself in Martin after his own stint with the team in the 1990s. Biaggi noted that it is possible for Martin to fall back in love with the team after such a public spat.
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