Is Jorge Martin’s crash-strewn Barcelona MotoGP costing him confidence in Italy?

Jorge Martin says he has “the least feeling of the season” at the Italian MotoGP this weekend, two weeks on from his crash-strewn weekend in Barcelona.

Martin was fairly underwhelming on Friday at Mugello, getting into the top-10 in eighth place in the afternoon MotoGP practice but lacking the kind of standout speed that was a factor for him at Le Mans, Jerez, and even at times in Catalunya.

“Today I didn’t feel good at all,” Jorge Martin explained after Practice at Mugello.

“I’m having the same problems I used to have in 2024 on Friday and Saturday. Luckily, now I have more experience so we knew already which direction to take and it was working well. But still we have to, and we have time to, adapt more to this track. 

“Mugello is a track where you need a lot of feeling and if you make one change that maybe it helps you, it helps you a lot all the track. So, we need to continue working on this matter and we are doing a great job, but the other factories are super-strong here also.”

The Aprilia RS-GP dominated the start of the season but has seemed more fallible in recent weeks, most notably with Marco Bezzecchi’s struggles in Catalunya two weeks ago.

Martin says that the Mugello weekend has so far given him the “least feeling of the season” with the RS-GP, but he admitted that this could be an after-effect from his six-crash weekend in Barcelona, including the Monday test.

“I think it’s always good, the Aprilia is always good,” Martin said. “But Mugello is where I have the least feeling of the season, let’s say, comparing to other tracks. 

“Barcelona for sure was cold, strange grip, but I was always having a good feeling with the front. 

“But here I’m having much more movements and struggling more, but the bike is performing well. 

“Maybe it’s just myself that after all those crashes I feel that I’m about to crash, so I need to work on it.”

He added: “I’m used to crashing so this is part of our sport, but for sure when you crash six times, sometimes [in a straight line], you lose the confidence. 

“Today I was braking and I was feeling that ‘Maybe I’m crashing’, but I wasn’t.

“Lap-by-lap I’m building confidence. Today, during the practice, I improved a lot. 

“I hope that tomorrow I wake up with more confidence and I can attack a bit more.”

The crashes also had a physical impact, but Martin said the pain reduced throughout Friday in Italy.

“In the morning I felt quite a lot of pain, but in the [afternoon] we improved a bit,” he said.

“Anyway, today I feel I pushed my limits in terms of I think I did one 1m45s no breathing, so after the lap I was struggling to breathe. I’m still exhausted from the effort, but this is our sport, it’s not easy. I did my best.”

The Aprilia Racing rider added that he will “absolutely I will take something” on Saturday, when asked whether he will take painkillers tomorrow.

“I’m feeling quite okay, but it’s getting inflamed and we need to control this.”