There was a real sense of optimism to the Aprilia launch at the Sky Italia studios in Milan. With good reason: after a troubled start to 2025, with Jorge Martin injuring himself multiple times during preseason testing and training, Marco Bezzecchi started to make real progress. He won at Silverstone, but that was partially down to luck, with Fabio Quartararo forced to pull out of the lead when his ride-height device failed.
But the second half of the season, the Aprilia RS-GP became a real weapon. From Brno, Bezzecchi was consistently on the podium. Bezzecchi won sprint races at Misano, Mandalika, and Phillip Island. Then Raul Fernandez won on Sunday at Phillip Island, giving Aprilia a clean sweep in Australia. And Marco Bezzecchi won the last two GPs of the season, at both Portimão and Valencia.
Aprilia are aiming to push Ducati even harder in 2026. But the Noale factory’s Technical Director, Fabiano Sterlacchini, is all too aware of just how tough that challenge will be. “There is a general law in the world, the Pareto law, which basically says that to do 80% of the development, you spend 20% of your effort. But for the remaining 20% of the result, you have to spend 80% of your effort. So basically, this kind of mindset is exactly what we have to do. In terms of focusing in our mission and our obsession, that is performance, performance, performance.”
