Analysis: The early signs of hope in Jorge Martin’s Aprilia MotoGP test debut

Basking in the cold sunshine of November on Tuesday morning, Jorge Martin was treated to a hero’s welcome by the reasonably large crowd (by testing standards) at Barcelona. Here was a rider the picture of relaxed, something we hadn’t seen from him all of the Solidarity Grand Prix weekend beforehand.

And, to be fair to him, that was perfectly understandable as he faced his final chance at a first MotoGP world title. He, of course, made his dream a reality in the final grand prix of the season last Sunday after finishing third despite Francesco Bagnaia winning the race.

There wasn’t much time to celebrate, though. On Monday, the Ducati and Pramac branding came off of all of his race gear as he made his first official contact with the Aprilia factory team he will race for in 2025.

As he walked into the garage in his leathers for the first time on Tuesday, Martin was all smiles. Those smiles hadn’t been wiped off his face either when he returned to the box after his first run of five laps on the 2024-spec RS-GP.

In some ways, it was reminiscent of Marc Marquez’s first laps on the Ducati last year at the post-season Valencia test. The circumstances of their respective moves are vastly different, but there were a lot of eyes on Martin.

He’s traded in the best bike on the grid for one that finished third in the manufacturers’ standings in 2024, albeit as the only marque able to halt Ducati’s clean sweep of grand prix victories courtesy of Maverick Vinales at the Americas Grand Prix.

But the competitiveness of the RS-GP in the back half of 2024 will not have made for comfortable viewing for Martin. In the hands of factory duo Maverick Vinales and Aleix Espargaro, from the British GP to the end of the season, they combined to score 137 points, and just two sprint podiums. By comparison, it took Jorge Martin on his own five rounds to match and then exceed that tally.

Martin’s decision on joining Aprilia was made after seven rounds, in which time Aprilia had won the Americas GP and taken two sprint wins. Certainly, it wasn’t at the level of the Ducati, but the marque also wasn’t as lost as it became in the second half of the season.

On his first day on the bike, splitting his time across the 2024 RS-GP and the 2025 RS-GP, Martin completed 77 laps - only bettered by team-mate Marco Bezzecchi and Trackhouse Aprilia rookie Ai Ogura. The new world champion was 11th on the timesheets, 1.056s off the pace set by Gresini’s Alex Marquez.

That doesn’t mean much, though there is a little bit of pride in being the top rider to have swapped manufacturer for the test.

Martin wasn’t allowed to speak to the media owing to his contract situation with Ducati to the end of the year, so we’ll have to wait until February to get his thoughts on the RS-GP. At times in the test he looked comfortable, at others not so much, while his first laps on the 2025 RS-GP ended with a small crash at Turn 5 in the final three hours of the session. He did no discernible long runs either to gleam anything from.

But Aprilia CEO Massimo Rivola did note that Martin’s feedback of the RS-GP “was more positive than expected” and “is a bike he likes a lot”. We’ll have to take his word on that for now, especially at a circuit typically good for the Aprilia, but Martin’s body language did back up Rivola’s comments.

Aprilia’s new technical director Fabiano Sterlacchini did speak to the media. While he refused to be drawn on any conclusions about the RS-GP, having himself only just joined the project, he did offer glimpses of the mood within the camp after Martin’s first day on the bike.

“I think that the fact that we have Jorge, who is coming from the world title bike and he is a world title rider, is a big opportunity because we have a reference and we can understand clearly more the aspects that we have to concentrate on,” he told the media, including Crash.net, on Tuesday.

“I think in this short time that we worked together, yesterday [for] half a day and today, he’s a mixture between a champion and a leader. And, to be honest, it’s quite astonishing the way he is approaching the job. So, really good.”

The Aprilia project for 2025 is a considerably different one compared to 2024. Raul Fernandez aside (who didn’t have an RS-GP 25 to test due to a lack of parts right now), Aprilia’s line-up is completely new, with Martin being joined by Bezzecchi and Ogura. 

Romano Albesiano, who has steered development of the bike for the RS-GP’s lifespan, has departed as technical director to Honda. He has been followed by Aleix Espargaro, another person instrumental in making the Aprilia an attractive prospect to a top talent like Martin.

This is a big winter coming up for Aprilia as it looks to course correct 2024 under new technical leadership and with new riders. The fact Martin has come on board is just added pressure, though CEO Massimo Rivola felt the team he saw on Monday was “already united like they’ve been working together a lot”.

The maturity Martin has shown this year to ultimately win the championship has clearly put him in the right frame of mind for the Aprilia challenge.

Since signing for the Noale brand after Ducati ultimately rejected its initial plans to promote him to its factory team, all of the talk has been about Martin possibly taking the number one plate to Aprilia. Perhaps the fact he didn’t head out on track at Barcelona with a big number one emblazoned on the front of the RS-GP is testament to where his head is had.

Certainly, when Crash.net asked him pre-weekend if he felt any sadness about the title situation knowing that Ducati deemed he wasn’t better than Marc Marquez to get the factory nod, his response spoke to a ride who is not motivated by revenge.

“For me, it’s not that I wasn’t good enough for them,” he said. “For sure, I know they trust in me, that’s why I have the contract that I have. It was another situation and maybe there was more interest in another thing. I don’t think that they were in the meetings like ‘he’s not good enough to be on a factory bike’. 

"So, I am happy with their decision, if they think it’s the best and I am happy with my future. So, I think we keep the good relationship. You never know in the future what could happen in two years in the next contract cycle. You never know, but the important thing is the relationship is kept good.”

Without question, Martin’s title defence will be a tough one. The RS-GP isn’t at the level of the Ducati and may not be at the start of 2025, if not ever across the season. But faced with the chance to remain at Ducati with Pramac in the wake of the Marquez promotion, Martin took the decision himself to go in a new direction. Whatever happens, that bravery to step out on his own should be applauded.

Ducati boss Davide Tardozzi remarked over the Barcelona weekend that “if Aprilia wants to buy the number one, let’s see if they can keep it next year”.

It’s a comment that doesn’t quite tell the whole truth of why Aprilia has Martin in the first place. But the impact he appears to have made on his first day on the bike looks to have been worth every penny…