Marco Bezzecchi: "Everything was new, big responsibility" to develop a bike

Marco Bezzecchi says the first test of the year with the factory Aprilia MotoGP team “was a strange feeling” for him having come from a satellite squad.

The three-time grand prix winner rode for Valentino Rossi’s team on year-old Ducati machinery for the first three seasons of his MotoGP career before signing a factory deal with Aprilia for 2025.

With Jorge Martin and Raul Fernandez ruled out of the Sepang test last week on day one due to injury, Bezzecchi has been forced to spearhead winter development of the RS-GP.

Having never been in a situation before to develop a bike, Bezzecchi admits it was “strange” at first to get used to and “a big emotion”.

“It’s good. Was a strange feeling for me in Sepang,” he said on Wednesday midway through the first day of the Buriram test.

“Everything was new. I never had the possibility to develop a MotoGP bike.

“So, was a big emotion for me but also a big responsibility for me to try to make a good job.

“In Sepang everything was good, fortunately, apart from missing Jorge of course as everyone knows.

“Here we started again in a good way. We have less time, so we have to be even better, even more precise to adjust everything.

“But the guys are working really good. So, I will try my best to give them good feedback.”

Asked if he enjoys the added pressure of being a factory rider, he added: “Well, it’s only a test, so it’s pressure but not really. But yeah, I enjoy.”

As of the halfway stage of day one at Buriram, Bezzecchi was sat fifth overall on the combined timesheets.

He and Aprilia are focused on testing every new item they have left on Wednesday in order to focus fully on race preparation on Thursday for the Thai Grand Prix.

“We started from where we were in Sepang,” he said.

“We are working still on some new items to try.

“We still have some to try hopefully today and tomorrow try to focus more on preparing a bit the race weekend. Not too bad for the first morning.

“We planned to hopefully finish everything today. We worked very well in Sepang.

“After we also planned very well the test here. The guys did a wonderful job, so hopefully I can give the guys some good comments, precise about everything to don’t need a back check tomorrow.”