Manager claims Jorge Martin “is free of contract” in explosive interview on Aprilia MotoGP dispute

Jorge Martin’s manager Albert Valera insists the reigning MotoGP champion “is free of contract” for 2026, contradicting an earlier statement made by Aprilia.

Jorge Martin confirmed last month that he was looking to exercise a clause in his contract with Aprilia to quit the manufacturer at the end of the year based on current performance of the bike.

The initial reports of this that emerged after the French Grand Prix stunned as Martin has only ridden in one MotoGP weekend so far in 2025 due to injury.

At the British Grand Prix, Aprilia issued a statement on the matter insisting that the contract between the pair for 2026 remained valid and must be honoured.

Aprilia then won the British Grand Prix with Marco Bezzecchi, which it said was a message to Martin that the RS-GP is a competitive bike.

After weeks of quiet around the situation, Martin’s manager Albert Valera has given an explosive interview to MotoGP’s world feed on Saturday morning.

“Well, what we can say is that Jorge is free of contract for next year, for ’26,” he said.

“It’s pretty clear for us. He has executed the clause that he has in the contract and we are just following the contract.

“Yes. He’s completely open, available and we will see what will happen in the future. But again, he had a clause in the contract, he had the right to execute that clause and he did so.”

It has been widely reported that Martin wants to join Honda next season, something the Japanese marque has been wary of commenting on and has simply said that it does not offer deals to riders under contract elsewhere.

On these links, Valera said: “For the moment, we cannot talk about any third-party offers because it’s still maybe not the right moment to talk and to understand other offers.

“The first thing that we need to do is to make sure that Jorge wants to execute that clause. He did it. He already announced it in his statement and we deeply believe that he is free.

“And from the moment that we obtained Jorge’s freedom, we are able to talk to other manufacturers. Yes, if you ask me about Honda, it’s an option as well for next year.”

Valera’s comments here somewhat contradict his earlier statement, while it is worth noting that Martin only confirmed his intentions to leave - not that he'd successfully extracated himself from his contract - Aprilia in his statement on the matter late last month.

One element of this contract dispute has been reports of the Martin camp being open to extending the performance clause deadline.

Valera suggests this is something that Aprilia has denied.

“First of all, we always wanted to extend that clause to maybe September, October because we know that maybe the deadline was a bit short,” he added.

“It’s a deadline that we never wanted to put in that time of the year.

“We always wanted to make it longer in order to give Aprilia and Jorge more time to try themselves because at the end it’s Jorge who is the one who has to try the bike.

“No one is going to tell him how to be fast. He needs to feel it first-hand. That’s why we were always open to extending that deadline already back when we were talking the contract.

“"And even now it would be great if we could give Jorge more time and a second chance to train himself on the bike.

“If we cannot do that, obviously we didn’t achieve that outcome, then we had to execute that clause in the time that was stated by contract.

“Now the situation we are it would now be lovely if he could understand his future as soon as possible as he can focus on Aprilia for the rest of the year.

He continued: “Again, we always wanted to extend the clause in good faith. We thought both Aprilia and Jorge deserved a second chance.

“And that was denied. And no one can tell Jorge he’s going to be fast or not with Aprilia.

“He needs to feel it first-hand. That’s always what we defended because that was the spirit of what we negotiated and we need to allow Jorge to keep his right.

“If he cannot try anymore races, then we need to keep the clause in the contract.

“I know Marco is doing a good job, we believe Jorge can do a good job.

“But he has a right by contract that he has to try himself the bike, and we need to give him that confidence.

“If we don’t give him that confidence, then we are giving him the wrong message and whatever happens he will probably think about other destinations.”

Aprilia responded to this interview by stating it will not add anything further to what it has already said on the matter at Silverstone.

"Our position has not changed since the press release issued on Thursday 22 May," a spokesperson said. 

"Aprilia Racing representatives won’t give any further comment on the matter."