Tech analysis: Jorge Martin tests multiple Aprilia fairings

Jorge Martin’s Aprilia MotoGP debut took place in Barcelona, two days after he was crowned 2024 MotoGP World Champion, and the Spanish rider had a number of different fairings to try.

None of the fairings Martin tried were a huge departure from what Aprilia has been running since 2022, when it brought the first iteration of its wide-bottom ground effect fairing.

That element remains in all of the fairings Martin tried, but Aprilia has tried to add complexity in two different ways.

The first fairing that Martin tried was the base 2024 fairing that Aleix Espargaro, Maverick Vinales, and Miguel Oliveira ran last season.

The other two both tried to incorporate downwash elements. These elements push the air ‘down’, but, when at maximum lean angle, they effectively evacuate airflow from the side fairing in such a way that a low pressure area is created to suck the bike towards the track and put additional load into the tyres, increasing grip.

The typical way this is achieved in MotoGP is with ‘ducts’, as first seen on Ducati’s Desmosedici since 2021.

One of the two new Aprilia fairings used by Martin used this design, with ducts placed on each side of the fairing, in front of the main wide-bottom section.

The other new fairing seemed to be based on Ducati’s 2024 fairing. For 2024, Ducati had traditional downwash ducts at the front of the fairing, behind which was a wide-bottom element that itself had an opening at the front, and another at the bottom.

Effectively, Ducati’s 2024 design utilises both the duct design and the wide-bottom design.

Aprilia seems to have tried to develop their own take on this design, with a full-length wide-bottom section that had an opening on either side at the front.