Aprilia on Jorge Martin’s first test: ‘He’s a mixture between a champion and a leader’

Aprilia MotoGP technical director Fabiano Sterlacchini says “astonishing” Jorge Martin is “a mixture between a champion and a leader” following his first test on the RS-GP.

Just 48 hours after winning the 2024 MotoGP world title, Martin swapped Pramac Ducati for the factory Aprilia squad on Tuesday at the Barcelona post-season test.

The Spaniard tested the 2024 and 2025-spec RS-GPs, completing 77 laps in total in 11th on the timesheets - though he did suffer a small crash late in the session.

Due to contractual reasons, Martin was not able to speak to the media following his first test of the RS-GP.

However, Sterlacchini - who takes over from Romano Albesiano as technical director at Aprilia - was able to evaluate Martin’s first test with the brand.

“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.”

Sterlacchini comes to Aprilia having spent 2022 and 2023 with KTM, prior to which he served 17 years with Ducati in its engineering department.

With little time to understand the project and the bike, he refused to be drawn into analysis on where the RS-GP needs to improve.

“Personally, I believe that is impossible: you don’t need a person who is good, you need God to understand everything in such a short time,” he said.

“To be honest, in some aspects it started to become a bit more clear, less blurred the picture, but it’s absolutely premature to draw any conclusions at this moment.”