Is Assen MotoGP a must-win for Aprilia after disastrous recent weeks?

Jorge Martin doesn’t believe this weekend’s MotoGP Dutch Grand Prix represents a “must-win” for the brand, despite Ducati’s gains amid its rival’s struggles.

Aprilia’s early-season dominance has been severely tested in recent rounds, with a number of on-track incidents coming as Ducati has made significant gains in the championship.

Jorge Martin was involved in a race-ending collision at the Catalan Grand Prix, before triggering a pile-up at Turn 1 in Hungary that also involved team-mate Marco Bezzecchi.

At the Czech Grand Prix last weekend, championship leader Bezzecchi was banned after striking a marshal following a crash in the sprint.

This has allowed Marc Marquez to close to within 40 points of the lead, while VR46 Ducati’s Fabio Di Giannantonio is only 23 away, with Bezzecchi eight points clear of Martin.

Asked on Thursday ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix if this was a must-win weekend for Aprilia, Martin replied: “Well, I don't think there’s, for the moment a must-win; the important thing for me is I must gain the feeling.

“I know if we are able to find this feeling I can be able to fight for podiums and victories every weekend.

“And for me I'm taking it a bit like at the beginning of the season like a test, try to understand how I can improve because I think we arrived in Le Mans and we stopped improving.

“So we have to continue improving because the other ones you can see are coming—as I knew they were coming—and we have to continue improving our base set-up to be able to fight for this title.”

‘I don’t want to be an engineer’

Martin has struggled with the front-end of his Aprilia in recent rounds, with those issues halting him from getting straight into Q2 last Friday at Brno.

He says his team will have something for him to try on Friday at Assen, but wants to focus on riding rather than ‘being an engineer’.

“I hope my team has some ideas,” he said.

“You know, I don't really want to do the engineer, let's say.

“I want to be the rider—I told my comments to the team, and for sure they have something in mind to try tomorrow.

“I think I missed still kilometres with the bike. I was fast in a lot of races, but I wasn't always at my 100%.

“Maybe only Le Mans is where I found the perfect feeling, so we need to understand and reflect on that and try to find that feeling again.

“Because for sure, when I have the feeling and the bike, we know it's good, I can fight for victories. But if not, it's really difficult.”