Pecco Bagnaia tells Jorge Martin: "If you sign something, you must respect it"

Three-time World Champion Francesco Bagnaia says that Jorge Martin “cannot cancel” his Aprilia MotoGP contract.

Bagnaia – who battled with Martin for the 2023 and 2024 MotoGP titles, winning the former and losing out in the latter – spoke on Thursday ahead of the British Grand Prix.

Aprilia released a statement earlier in the day confirming that the factory’s contract with Martin “remains valid and in effect” after speculation had begun to circle that negotiations had been taking place to alter or cancel the contract which began at the beginning fo this year.

“I was awaiting some news from Aprilia before starting some ideas about it, and like I was expecting Aprilia just said that they will continue like they signed their contract,” Bagnaia said.

“When you have a contract you need to follow it, you cannot cancel it.

“In my opinion, if you take the words about something and if you sign something, you must respect it.

“It could be a problem if someone started to make this kind of chaos like this, like it started to become. So, I think it’s the correct thing.”

Pecco Bagnaia says Jorge Martin 'must respect' contract

Bagnaia added that the social media landscape of the current era makes things more difficult to interpret.

“We are living in a period where a lot of speculation is done on social media and this is a big problem, I think, because it’s difficult to understand [what’s true and what’s false],” he said.

“I think Aprilia made the correct move, I think Jorge [Martin] made the correct choice: if you sign a contract, you must respect it.”

Bagnaia also said that – while he has not had a contract which features an escape clause, as Martin’s is reported to have – he nonetheless thinks that the same is true.

“I never had this kind of contract, so I don’t know,” he said when asked about leaving a contract via an escape clause.

“I always decided for my future, and I always wanted to respect it. It’s true that, in the past, I had some moments where I wanted to maybe change, but it’s not correct.”

Psychological matters are also not an excuse to leave a contract where one or both parties are unhappy, Bagnaia said.

“You do your maximum to try to solve the problem,” he said when asked about the possible mental impact of Martin’s current situation with Aprilia.

“I think that’s the correct thing. It’s like a marriage: if you decide to go forward you must give your maximum to make your life happy.”

When asked if his current Ducati Lenovo teammate Marc Marquez – who left his HRC contract a year early to join Gresini Racing in 2024 before joining the factory Ducati team for this season – should, then, have stayed at Honda for the agreed duration of his contract there, Bagnaia repeated what he said about the Martin-Aprilia situation.

“If you sign a contract, you must respect it,” he said.

“It’s not correct to exit from it.”