Rivola’s message to Jorge Martin when Bezzecchi won amid “unpleasant” Honda saga - Exclusive

After the coup of signing MotoGP world champion Jorge Martin, Aprilia’s 2025 season soon became an “emotional” roller-coaster for rider and manufacturer alike.

Disaster struck when Martin was injured in the opening hours of pre-season testing in Malaysia. 

Further accidents and fractures followed, the most serious after he crashed on his belated RS-GP debut in Qatar and was clipped by Fabio di Giannantonio.

A nightmare situation escalated when news broke that Martin hoped to use an exit clause in his contract to leave Aprilia at the end of the season.

Martin’s manager Albert Valera publicly named Honda as an option, while Aprilia Racing CEO Massimo Rivola confirmed in a recent MotoGP documentary:

“Albert Valera came to me and said, ‘You know what, I think we could leave, and Honda is quite interested in him, the offer is really good’.

“And I said, ‘Are you joking?’

“The day after, I went to Madrid, because I wanted to see him [Martin] to check if it was true what Albert had just said.

“And he said, ‘I think it’s better for me to leave’, and I said, ‘I’m sorry, but I’m not going to let you go’.”

Aprilia contested the clause, held firm and, with the public backing of Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta, Martin was ultimately forced to honour the full two-year agreement.

But the injury drama continued when Martin suffered a fourth set of fractures after misjudging his braking at the start of the Motegi Sprint, colliding with his own team-mate Marco Bezzecchi.

In Martin’s absence, Bezzecchi, who had also joined Aprilia from Ducati, went on to lead the Noale factory to three grand prix victories and a best-ever third in the riders' standings.

“Quite an emotional season, I would say. For sure, it started not as we planned,” Rivola told Crash.net.

“The expectation was to give the riders a few months and then be in the position to fight for podiums, basically. So that was the ambition we had from the start.

“Then we know what happened with Jorge [injuries] and also what developed with him, the unpleasant story of Honda and so on.”

Aprilia faced a delicate balancing act, keeping the door open for Martin’s return while making it clear they would resist any attempt to leave early.

“It was a difficult time, but often the difficult moments are when you make another step in terms of pulling the company together,” Rivola said.

“Also in terms of, ‘OK, let's show Jorge that this is the right bike for him’.”

“I sent a voicemail to Jorge”

Aprilia arrived at Silverstone under intense scrutiny over Martin’s future but left with Bezzecchi delivering the manufacturer’s much-needed first victory of the season, also the first under the new technical leadership of Fabiano Sterlacchini.

“I still remember that when we won, I sent a voicemail to Jorge saying, ‘Come on! We can do that. You can also do that. Try to get well soon’,” Rivola said.

Martin publicly committed his 2026 future to Aprilia upon his return at Brno and went on to claim a best result of fourth before being sidelined yet again by the Motegi injuries.

“Unfortunately, he basically missed a complete season,” Rivola continued.

“So next year is not going to be easy for him because Marco is just at the right level.

“Jorge needs to set up his mind to understand that he needs time for himself to know the bike.

“At the end, the most important day of this season was the Misano test before he came back [in Brno] because it was almost the only day where he had the chance to work on the bike and not just straight on performance.”

Asked if Martin must forget 2025 entirely and begin again, Rivola replied:

“It's not going to be easy to forget. For sure, the commitment will be to start from scratch. But I think he'll lalso learn from what happened this season.”

As well as Bezzecchi’s three grand prix wins (and three Sprint victories), Trackhouse rider Raul Fernandez won the Australian Grand Prix, plus two other rostrums.

Aprilia finished a best yet second, behind Ducati, in the MotoGP constructors’ standings.