Betting on Black: can Aprilia really dethrone Ducati?

The 2025 Aprilia MotoGP team presentation was the epitome of pre-season vibes: new elements, new vision, boundless hope and possibility. It was hard not to be convinced from my seat…

Words and Photos by Adam Wheeler

Is there a more confident team in MotoGP right now than the factory Aprilia squad? The optimism is understandable. New riders, new staff, renewed enthusiasm as the Aleix Espargaro eight-season era ends and that immediately identifiable #1 plate lands on the unmissable dark RSGP25. The contingent of Italian and international media in the small studio deep within the realms of the Sky facility in Milan were surrounded by large LED screens and lights beaming Aprilia red: the glow was tangible and almost blinding.

Aprilia are invigorated…even if they are still not the best team on the grid this year. 160km southwest of Noale and the modest Italian HQ for the Piaggio Group owned brand, lies Borgo Panigale in Bologna and as the dominant force in the world championship Ducati are the rulers of Grand Prix with two exceptional candidates for Jorge Martin’s championship in 2025. The pairing of Pecco Bagania and Marc Marquez means the GP25s will be steered by a total of 11 world crowns of experience and excellence (the duo jointly claimed 13 of the 20 rounds in 2024) and the Desmosedici will be the superior motorcycle for 2025 and 2026 and until other manufacturers have a chance to claw up to the precipice with the regulation changes and the 850 chapter in 2027.

“You know, everybody wants to be valued,” Jorge Martin.

There is every chance that the centre of the 2025 MotoGP whirlpool will contain an awkward inter-team hangout between Bagnaia and Marquez, vaguely similar to the way that the Italian and Jorge Martin used the same technical package to take the championship dispute to the final race in Barcelona and ensure MotoGP provided a last round, last gasp pressure-cooker for the third year in a row. The buzz around Ducati will reverberate louder next week when the two multi-champions are officially presented together for the first time in the annual ski setting of Madonna di Campiglio. For now, Aprilia still have the spotlight and tone in Milan was one of untapped positivity.

Most of the effusiveness oozed from 26-year-old Martin; diminutive, muscular, partially hidden under the regulation Red Bull cap. The Spaniard was evidently still in the honeymoon bliss of his title achievement achieved less than eight weeks previously. He was also enrapt after several days of promotional activity and acclimatisation facetime in Noale.

“You know, everybody wants to be valued,” he said during a long press conference answering questions confidently in three different languages. “I feel already the love from the factory. I also feel already like it's my family. I will kill for them. This is also important. I never felt this before in my life in a factory, in other brands that I rode for. I'm so happy and I think it's a big motivation for all of us.”

Aprilia Racing CEO Massimo Rivola confirmed the benefits of signing the standout MotoGP rider of the moment and 26-year-old Marco Bezzecchi (who had been on the factory’s radar since the beginning of the decade) for an Italian angle. The RSGP25 still does not carry a title sponsor but the bike was noticeably busier for additional logos and more backing. “The new line-up helped, absolutely, and I have to say that not just the riders but the fact that in the last two-three years when we became a factory team, we achieved good results,” he said. “It gave confidence to the riders but also to the partners to join us and now having the #1 is even more rewarding.”

Rivola had a few more words on the cost and contentions of MotoGP but Martin was naturally the star draw and subject of the gathering in Milan and was his maiden official function in black. The steps in maturity, preparation, mental strategy that Martin made to triumph against the weight of numbers and trophies that Bagnaia accrued in 2024 made him a constant force. He now has to apply that tact to a different set of parameters. “I'm training, I think, better - not more - but better than ever and doing the things really in a good way and understanding why I do certain things,” he mused. “So, I'm really happy. I feel great. I feel experience is helping me, and also this project keeps me really motivated and really looking forward to start.”

Last year the Spaniard barely had to alter his Ducati GP24 from weekend to weekend and although he will have his Crew Chief Daniele Romagnoli with him at Aprilia there will be more tasks on the agenda than simply aiming for points and matching rivals. “It's really important to know how to approach this new project because I think one year ago I would say: ‘yeah, I want to win again to demonstrate to the people that I am the best…’ But for me now, it's not like this. I mean, now I have my own challenge to make this this project win. I think it's a really nice project. I have a lot of excitement to do that and I will go for it. I have a lot of determination. But as I said in another in other places, I cannot guarantee any results because this is completely impossible. I cannot guarantee I will be … I mean, winning or top three? I don't know. But I can guarantee my 100% determination. A lot of sacrifices to make this project a winning project.”

Rivola extoled Martin’s leadership potential. His rider will be the vanguard of a factory and a factory team for the first time in ten-year GP career. “In a way it is surprising the attitude that he has so far…and then we will see what we have when there are tough times,” the Italian reasoned. “But his approach is the one of someone that fights a lot and has worked a lot to be in this position. I think he knows he can’t waste that.”

Martin’s first taste of the Aprilia came with the effects of a hangover at the Barcelona one-day test on November 19^th. Ignoring the hype around the Turn 5 shoulder scrape – a move that the rider himself admits is a tilt for show – there was at least a promising discovery and an early indication of the work ahead. “The front [end] feeling was incredible. It was unbelievable,” he beamed. “I think I said it before; I think it was the best bike I rode in terms of the front end. It was crazy. I was a bit slow at the beginning but then I started to build some speed and I started to see a bit of progress for me. Maybe it wasn't for Aleix or Maverick [Viñales], but for me there were some problems, like the movement was a bit more, you know, unstable than Ducati.”

“Then we started to do some changes,” he added “and everything became more stable. We tried new things for 2025 that were quite good. Also, about the fairing, about the new bike in general, it's a big step compared to 2024, so I'm really optimistic.”

Fellow convert Bezzecchi who, like Martin, only knows the feeling of a Ducati twistgrip in MotoGP, also tasted the rigidity of the RSGP front. It was a virtue of the motorcycle and also an asset that helped for fast flowing tracks but provide weighty and a hinderance at tighter ‘stop-and-go’ circuits. The feature complicated braking performance, as well as throwing the whole motorcycle off kilter across low grip layouts.

“The biggest difference was the front that was really, really stable,” Bezz remarked on his first appetiser at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. “It's a characteristic of the Aprilia. A big stability. The bike gave me good confidence immediately in straight braking. This was quite different from Ducati that is in another position so when you brake, the bike reacts in a different way. Then also of course, the way to ride is completely different, so I will need to adapt lap by lap, more and more.”

When it comes to the RSGP, this is where the buoyancy in Milan deflates slightly. There is hope that Technical Director Fabiano Sterlacchini can apply some of his wisdom gleaned from an apprenticeship under Gigi Dall’Igna at Ducati and an aborted stint at KTM. But the Italian will need solve the erraticism of the RSGP and a mould fashioned by Romano Albesiano, who is now trying to solve some of HRC’s probes into the RCV wilderness. Can Aprilia risk another vast change of the RSGP concept?

Sterlacchini admitted that the factory had been working on electronics on the off-season but had his head turned by the perceived braking weakpoint at the Barcelona test as well as by Espargaro’s speed in the Grand Prix itself. “The performance Aleix had in Barcelona in braking, it proved that the bike has potential.” He mentioned though those problems generated under hard braking was still an issue to address. Sterlacchini pointed out that his technical crew have looked at the Aprilia’s vulnerability when it comes to holeshots and muscling into the first corner. “We already put in place some activity…and I think that probably we will be in a different level from the beginning of the season. I’m quite confident,” he said.

Sterlacchini was interesting on his belief that the rider’s role in development is essential but also just another key ingredient together with data and analysis. “Obviously we cannot pretend they [the riders] are a perfect sensor with a perfect ‘CPU’ in the mind. So that is the reason why we are there. The philosophy is the perfect combination between the feeling, the subject and aspect with all the engineering that is fundamental for performance.”

Maverick Viñales completed 65 Grands Prix and gained seven podiums and one win with the RSGP. The reason for his departure was never clear-cut (at one point he even stated that it had been a dream for the motocross-mad athlete to wear Red Bull KTM colours) but the Catalan was evidently frustrated by the idiosyncrasies of the motorcycle; a bike that would occasionally float, like it did at COTA, and was good enough in 2024 to make Q2 at every round but then also suffocate its riders in races with a tropical climate and then inexplicably lose traction and be temperamental with engine braking and the 2024 rear Michelin.

“I needed to ride all year with the bike that I didn't like,” he said at Barcelona for his last run with the RSGP in comments prompted more by frustration than bitterness. “I discovered really good people, passionate people [at Aprilia]. They were very warm from the from the beginning until the end. The thing is that when I finished [the] 2023 [season] in Valencia I asked just two things: [improve] the start, and [to keep] the same bike, because I loved that bike. But then in Sepang [2024] it was another story. It’s the only thing I regret because I think with the ‘23 bike, a little bit more aero and a little bit more downforce it was the bike to - I don't know to fight with Ducati - but to be top four for sure…because of the consistency: we knew the setup, we knew everything.”

Reaching regularity and giving the likes of Martin and Bezzecchi (as well as Trackhouse Racing’s Raul Fernandez and Ai Ogura, as Aprilia will take ten full-factory RSGP25s to the Sepang test for the first time in their MotoGP story) the palette and brushes is also a matter of mindset, the Italian says.

“For sure we have to work because the consistency is an important aspect of the bike. Why? Mainly this sport is made a lot by motivation and how convinced you are by what you are doing. Motivation is an important part of performance. If you are struggling in one race then the negative effect and the drawback grows to the next race. You might have a competitive package at the next race but you are affected by negativeness. So…consistency is a target.”

The uncertainty over the mid-to-long term presence for KTM and the third European manufacturer on the grid meant costs and existence in MotoGP was a topical subject in Milan as Aprilia make their largest ever investment in a rider and their biggest technical outlay while being cushioned by the size of parent company the Piaggio Group (a company with more than 7000 employees, eight factories, eight bike brands past and present and a billion-euro turnover).

“It is one of my points in the never-ending discussion with Carmelo [Ezpeleta, Dorna CEO] and the MotoGP environment,” Rivola said on the budget to race. “I still believe that our sport, our business, is a bit too expensive. And we don’t really need that much to provide a good show and [we don’t need] to have a sort-of ‘aircraft’ on two wheels. There are things that in my opinion could be managed a bit better or regulated a bit better and when you make a rule then you need to be in a position to control it.”

“I don’t think we will lose KTM and I think the championship needs KTM,” he added. “It is time to deliver good news to MotoGP because we provide, I think, the best show ever and I don’t think we are getting back what we are delivering. So, I would be very keen to see Liberty [Media] on board because normally the Americans are quite good in terms of marketing, according to what they did in F1. They had a sort of ‘magic touch’, and we need that magic touch because it is a beautiful sport and I will say that riders are like superheroes and we need to show to the world what they are doing.”

One other ingredient from the rapid and effective Aprilia event was the chemistry between Martin and Bezzecchi. There has been history and diminished cordiality between the former Moto3 and Moto2 rivals but there seemed to be plenty of japery and bonhomie for the pre-recorded video intro where they try to sneak an early look at the RSGP25 livery and Bezzecchi was smart to squash any talk of indifference with Martin during the unveiling of the bikes themselves when he commented on the previous fractious relationship and put it down to immaturity. The words and his behaviour seemed very sincere for the show and also scrubbed the subject off the agenda in terms of media curiosity. The reality of the sentiment is bound to surface when the duo cojoin in a competitive predicament but, for now, Bezzecchi is rightfully using Martin as a barometer. “It will be important for me to try to use him as a reference, to see his data, to see the way that he works inside the box and try to copy everything that he does better than me,” the noticeable more relaxed Italian said. “He is the world champion so at the end, he is the strongest one at the moment. Let's say that apart from the skills on the bike - that he certainly has a lot - he also has a very good work ethic. He trains very well. But also he is very focused, very motivated every time. I’m also motivated, but it's difficult to be…always motivated every time. Also, when you have tough times. For me, last year was really tough and sometimes I struggled to keep myself motivated.”

Bezzecchi is seeking revitalisation of his career and, as with Martin, is dealing with full factory status for the first time. This will throw more spotlight on his results, conduct and his ability to refine a tricky motorcycle and harness unforgiving Michelin rubber. “You are the face of a full brand,” he said of the prospect. “So, you have hundreds of people working at your back, working for you and it's amazing. The biggest difference is inside the box. I was a bit nervous because when I sit on my chair, I saw so many people that I said: ‘OK, now, if I say some bullshit it’s a problem!’ But was very cool.”

For now, there is mystery, questions and heightened interest surrounding Aprilia and this means their efforts will produce a tantalising watch during the Malaysia and Thai tests and through the initial run until the European stint of the calendar. Brand Ambassador Max Biaggi opened the presentation in Milan by emphasising how good it was to see Aprilia’s strongest ever MotoGP roster getting ready to go. Sterlacchini said that the marriage of team, riders and bike has to be the ultimate priority, and the results will come from this effort. There’s that old cliché about a rising tide, and with Martin and Bezzecchi bringing the sea power the Noale vessel could be skimming into unchartered waters at the top of the standings.