They’ve long been known—lovingly, if not a little warily—as the “crazy ex-girlfriend team.” Aprilia MotoGP had a flair for the dramatic: bikes bursting into flames unprovoked, state-of-the-art engines mated to ancient transmissions, and riders doing pre-race oil checks like they were boarding a Soviet-era airliner.

Aprilia had done a commendable job of shutting our mouths in 2023 and 2024. They were winning races and competing for the championship early in the season. When the Marc Marqez engineered an impromptu game of musical MotoGP chairs hit the paddock in mid-season 2024, Aprilia stepped right up and grabbed Jorge Martin, who found himself without a Ducati ride. It was a ballsy move for the Italian manufacturer which is nearly always characterized as a scrappy team without the resources of the others. The reality is Aprilia is owned by the Piaggio Group, a $2 billion dollar a year multi-national.


At the end of the 2024 season, with their riders finishing seventh and eleventh in the final season tally, Aprilia's MotoGP team has seen what can only be seen as a mass exodus:

Aleix Espargaró retired to become Honda's test and wildcard rider.

Maverick Viñales left Aprilia to become a Tech 3 KTM rider.

Italian engineer Romano Albesiano left Aprilia to become Honda's MotoGP technical director. He had worked for Aprilia for over a decade.

Regardless of these moves, Aprilia had one thing that kept them as a powerhouse for 2025: they had Jorge Martin, the reigning world champion.

But now comes the news that Martin, injured by two pre-season crashes and a race crash, wants to invoke a clause in his contract which would allow him to leave Aprilia for 2026. Due to misfortune and bad luck, Martin doesn't even have 500 miles of track time on the Aprilia.

Why does he want to leave? For the same reason, we'd imagine, that Maverick, Aleix and Romano left: Because deep down, the crazy ex-girlfriend energy never really left.

DFA

Oh yeah. The RS400, when Aprilia thought a smaller 500, or a bigger 250, was the answer. It wasn't.

Behind the glossy press releases and podium champagne, the team probably still struggled with reliability gremlins, chaotic internal politics, and a sense that no matter how hard they pushed, the structure just wasn’t stable enough to sustain a real title campaign. The resources might be there on paper—thanks to Piaggio’s corporate heft—but in practice, Aprilia remained a team that asked for miracles and handed you a toolbox missing half its sockets.

Now, with Jorge Martin eyeing the exit before he’s even broken in the seat foam, Aprilia stands on the edge once again: loaded with potential, but hemorrhaging belief. In MotoGP, talent follows stability—and Aprilia, despite all its flashes of brilliance, still hasn’t convinced the paddock it can offer either.

If 2023 and 2024 were the years Aprilia silenced its critics, 2025 is shaping up to be the year it must prove it can keep its champions from walking out the door. Again.

Aprilia

Oh yeah, very strong remember when vibes with this photo: the late Aprilia CEO Ivan Beggio on the left, rider Loris Reggiani in center, and infamous MotoGP insider Carlo Pernat on the right. Note the mechanic peeking in doing the 'DOES ANYBODY GOT A FIRE EXTINGUISHER??!'