A special day
Today at Le Mans was a historic Sunday for Aprilia in MotoGP: in fact, the first ever triple for the Noale factory in the top class arrived, precisely on the day when Jorge Martin returned to win a Grand Prix, 588 days after the last time. A triumph full of emotion for the Spaniard, coming after many injuries last year but also after the arm wrestling triggered with Aprilia itself when the 2024 world champion had incredibly insisted on leaving the Italian team. In the end, staying was the right choice and also for Massimo Rivola, the man who first forced and then convinced Martin to honor the contract, this Sunday is not like the others.
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“Honestly, the first thought was quite emotional – Rivola confessed to the microphones of Sky Sport MotoGP – to think that a year ago he wanted to leave us and today we are here happy to celebrate the amazing weekend he had. He is particularly strong here, but it is really a sign that it is there. I believe this result will do him good also for the next races, even in terms of a single lap. Because he still lacks a little, knowing the possibilities he has. Today I would say it is yet another confirmation that the choice (to stay with Aprilia) was the right one. Already yesterday, hugging him after the Sprint, I said to him ‘do you remember last year here’. This is a double satisfaction, honestly“.
Carrot and stick
“Convincing Martin? It took a bit of the stick and a bit of the carrot – revealed Rivola, retracing the stages of the story that influenced much of Aprilia’s 2025 season – I came in a bit heavy-handed at the beginning because I could not accept that he could think we were not strong enough. And then the carrot, because he went through very difficult moments. His emotions when he crossed the finish line are all justified and so are ours. This is a beautiful story and now it must continue, because we have very strong riders with a bike that is definitely strong, so I expect a great championship”.
Aprilia’s black rules
Now Aprilia’s only problem would seem to be understanding how to manage the internal ‘derby’ for the World Championship between Bezzecchi and Martin. However, Rivola does not trust the rivals: “I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but it is still too early. If we look at the gaps, where Pedro and Diggia were, we are really talking about a couple of seconds. So in the course of a race it is nothing. In qualifying then there weren’t three Aprilias ahead, so honestly I would still keep my feet firmly on the ground. Then it’s true, the first three are Aprilia and that makes you think that we are technically the benchmark“.
The CEO of Aprilia, who knows F1 very well having worked for many years at Ferrari, then indirectly quoted the famous McLaren ‘papaya rules’ to describe the management of the Bezzecchi-Martin pair: “We have two really strong riders and I have to say that Ai Ogura ten laps from the end is probably one of the strongest riders around today in managing used tires. And he also has a great ease of overtaking. I believe we have two riders, Bezzecchi and Martin, who besides being fast are also two great professionals who will respect each other. They know the rules very well, the ‘black rules’, they know them very well. It’s one word: mutual respect. Actually, it’s two“.
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