Aprilia chief has heard people say something ‘completely wrong’ about Marco Bezzecchi

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Marco Bezzecchi is reaping the rewards of his switch from VR46 to Aprilia for the 2025 MotoGP season, with the Italian targeting a top-three championship finish.

The 26-year-old already has one top-three championship finish under his belt, after securing third in the 2023 standings for VR46 riding a Ducati GP22. Bezzecchi scored 329 points that year to rank behind Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia on 467 and Jorge Martin for Pramac on 428.

Martin and Bezzecchi are now teammates at Aprilia, as both left the Ducati ranks to move to the Noale factory from the 2025 MotoGP season. The move has paid off for Bezzecchi, who won May’s British Grand Prix for his fourth career victory after clinching three wins in 2023.

Bezzecchi won the British GP, as he capitalised on Fabio Quartararo retiring from the lead at Silverstone due to an issue with the Yamaha star’s ride height device. The Rimini native also contended for wins at Assen, Brno and Misano, and won the Sprints at Misano and Motegi.

Fabiano Sterlacchini thinks people have the ‘wrong’ impression of Marco Bezzecchi

But on top of Bezzecchi’s on-track performances, the way the Italian explains his feelings on the RSGP25 has surprised Aprilia technical director Fabiano Sterlacchini. Bezzecchi has also shown Sterlacchini traits that the Aprilia chief saw in Valentino Rossi while he was at Ducati.

READ MORE: Everything to know about Marco Bezzecchi from net worth to race number

Sterlacchini believes people who have not worked with Bezzecchi develop “completely” the wrong impression about the VR46 Academy graduate. But, having now worked together for the best part of a year, Bezzecchi’s feedback shows he is more than his “funny guy” facade.

“I think that [from the] outside, in the way that the people are figuring out who Marco is, it is completely wrong,” Sterlacchini told Motorsport.com. “He looks like a strange guy or a funny guy, tricky and explosive. But the moment that he is working, he is unbelievable.

“I believe that [is] probably because he is coming from the VR46 academy. I had the opportunity and also the privilege to work with Valentino a long time ago. I believe that there are several aspects [in which] he reminds me of the way that Valentino was working.

“After he was riding the bike, he was joking with the people a bit and then focusing on every aspect in every corner in super detail. The way that he is explaining the problem is a real surprise because he is super-fast, but with a testing approach that is not so conventional.”

Marco Bezzecchi has led Aprilia’s rise to rivalling Ducati for MotoGP’s best 2025 bike

Like Bezzecchi, Sterlacchini is enjoying his first full season at Aprilia after the Italian took up his position last November to replace Romano Albesiano. He was previously at Ducati from 2002-19, and worked with Rossi in ‘11 and ‘12, before a later spell with KTM from 2021-24.

READ MORE: Everything to know about Aprilia from the MotoGP team’s riders to hierarchy

Together, Bezzecchi and Sterlacchini have helped Aprilia rally from a steady start to the year to contending for regular Sprint and Grand Prix wins. Their inputs have also helped to make the Aprilia RSGP25 a rival for the Ducati GP25 as MotoGP’s best bike on the grid right now.

Bezzecchi has largely led the development of the RSGP25, with Martin enduring an injury-plagued first season with Aprilia. After the pace he showed as Bezzecchi won the Sprint at Mandalika, he would have also likely been the favourite to win the Indonesian Grand Prix.

Aprilia failed to see the potential of the RSGP25 rewarded in the Indonesian GP, however, as Bezzecchi crashed with Marc Marquez at Mandalika. Still, he will go to the Australian Grand Prix in P4 in the standings with only a 20-point deficit to factory Ducati rider Bagnaia for P3.