Jorge Lorenzo: “Unlucky” MotoGP Champion Jorge Martin needs “two things”

After a dream ending with the Pramac team in 2024, winning the MotoGP world title, Jorge Martin endured an injury-ravaged maiden Aprilia season in 2025, which former World Champion Jorge Lorenzo thinks continues to have psychological effects on Martin.

From MotoGP’s longest-ever calendar at 22 races, Martin showed up on only eight occasions in 2025, racing seven grands prix and finishing four of those.

Martin’s issues started in preseason when he crashed after only 13 laps on the opening day of the Valencia test. A crash while training as he prepared for the season-opening Thai Grand Prix then kept him out until Qatar, where he started the race but crashed and was hit by Fabio Di Giannantonio.

It was not until Brno that Martin was able to return after that, and in a special press conference held before the race in Czechia he admitted he’d feared for his life while in hospital after the Qatar crash.

There was some progress made after that, notably with the fourth place he scored in Hungary, but Martin was back on the sidelines after the Japan Sprint when he crashed at the first corner, suffering a displaced fracture of his collarbone.

Martin said before the season-ending Valencia Grand Prix, where he eventually made his latest return to racing, that he had originally hoped to be back in Australia, but the injury turned out to be worse than initially expected.

For Martin’s namesake, fellow Mallorcan, and former three-time MotoGP World Champion Jorge Lorenzo, the story of 2025 has been an “unlucky” one for the 2024 champion, and one that he thinks continues to have a mental effect on Martin’s riding.

“Jorge [Martin] has been very unlucky with the injuries, I think 30 fractures – a lot of fractures, especially the last year has been very unlucky,” Lorenzo told the MotoGP world feed broadcast during the Valencia test.

“This, for sure, doesn’t help mentally, because every fracture you get you increase your back, behind you, and for sure you don’t want to live these situations again.

“So, every time the track is wet or is complicated, your brain wants to go fast but your hand, no. 

“The young rider who doesn’t have injuries, they are not scared of anything, so for sure it doesn’t help. 

“So, happening is two things: Jorge needs more kilometres; and Jorge needs to be fit to be at the same level as the riders who are not injured and have kilometres. 

“So, this combination was not good for Jorge Martin.”

Although Martin started the race in Valencia, he pulled out halfway through to conserve energy for the Tuesday (18 November) test after the race, where he tested Aprilia’s new aerodynamics package, as well as a new chassis that he felt offered a more meaningful improvement.