Jorge Martin ‘will never be the Captain of Aprilia’ in MotoGP like Espargaro was

MotoGP world champion Jorge Martin admits he “will never be able to be the Captain” of Aprilia like Aleix Espargaro was but “can accept the responsibility” of leading the team.

Espargaro spent the final eight years of his MotoGP career with Aprilia, helping to turn it from mid-pack runners to race winners in that span.

He announced his retirement from racing during the Catalan Grand Prix and will act as Honda’s test rider next year.

Just over a week on from announcing his retirement, Martin signed a multi-year deal with the factory Aprilia squad after Ducati elected to go against its original decision to promote him to its works team for 2025.

In his time at Aprilia, Espargaro became known as ‘the Captain’ for his leadership.

Martin thinks scaling the same heights himself will be difficult.

“I think I will never be able to be the ‘Captain’ like Aleix was, because we was there for nine years, he brought Aprilia from nothing to win races and fight for the world championship,” he told AS.

“I can accept that responsibility, though. I feel the responsibility to be the leader of this project and I will do what I have to, or what is in my power, to succeed in taking this bike to the highest level.”

Martin also believes that Espargaro would have stayed at Aprilia for at least one more year had he decided earlier that he would be joining the Italian marque.

“If I had decided before [I did] to arrive in this brand, Aleix would surely have renewed for at least another year,” he added.

“But life is made up of situations and moments.”

Espargaro and Martin have an incredibly close relationship, with the former referring to the reigning world champion as his son on numerous occasions.

As well as his Honda test rider duties, Espargaro has also signed a deal to become an ambassador for the Lidl-Trek cycling team next year.