Aprilia reveals findings of analysis into dire Sepang MotoGP weekend
Aprilia has explained why it struggled so much at the recent Malaysian MotoGP
Aprilia boss Paolo Bonora has revealed the findings of the marque’s analysis into its difficult Malaysian MotoGP weekend, which he described as “one of our worst of 2025”.
The Italian brand came into the conclusion of the flyaway segment of the campaign in fine form, having won the Australian Grand Prix and consistently fought for the podium.
But its progress stalled at Sepang, with Marco Bezzecchi falling out of Q1 and struggling in the grand prix to 11th.
Aprilia boss Paolo Bonora says its data analysis from Malaysia showed that it reached the optimal set-up for its bike too late, while also blaming tyre choice for Bezzecchi’s Sunday struggles.
“It was probably one our worst races during 2025,” he said.
“To be honest, we analysed the data very well at home, and it is quite clear to us that we arrived at the correct set-up of the bike too late.
“Probably, we arrived only on Sunday with the correct set-up of the bike.
“And also, to be very honest, after the race we understood that the choice of the [front] tyre was not the correct one because probably the correct choice was the soft.
“But with the data we had until Saturday night, it was, for us, the best option.
“With a deeper analysis that we did in the next days, we understood that probably with a different choice of tyres, Marco could have achieved a different race position.”
Bonora added that the nature of the 2025 RS-GP means it takes longer for Aprilia to set up the bike on Fridays at some circuits, but this is overall better in preparing for races.
“This is something we have been asking all this year,” he added, when pressed on why it took so long to get to a set-up at Sepang.
“It’s something that we understand that with the bike of this year, we suffer a little bit to set-up the bike in some circuits, but with the pro that we understand the race pace better.
“So, it’s a different way of working, and we prefer this kind of result because we score many more points instead of being faster on Fridays.”
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