We recently had a chance to speak to Aprilia Racing CEO, Massimo Rivola, on the 2025 MotoGP season, the company’s best performance in the championship so far, Jorge Martin’s lacklustre season and more. Read on to hear Rivola’s thoughts on everything motorcycle racing.
Q: Big congratulations on finishing second in the constructors' Championship and third in the Riders' Championship. That's a pretty big leap when you compare it to Aprilia’s previous results in MotoGP.
Rivola: Yeah, that's true, but at the end when you finish second in the Constructors' Championship, it means you are the first of the losers, so it's not the target. The target is to be the first one overall on the proper championship, not the one of the losers. For sure, the target we have is quite clear. I don't think we should compare to our position four or five years ago, because at the end the company grew a lot.
Piaggio Group invested a lot in Aprilia Racing, and we became a factory team as an official factory diving into MotoGP projects. I think that the season was tricky in the beginning, but successful in the end. Clearly, the ideal scenario is to start next year from the same place we finished. Obviously, we have a guy called Marc Marquez that maybe is not agreeing with us, so we try to push and to get the best possible bike.
I'm very keen to see Jorge Martin finally recovering, hopefully 100 percent, and being back on the bike. I think that 2026 is going to be quite a nice season for you guys to watch. First, from the show point of view, in terms of fight, because for sure Pedro Acosta will be very fast. I'm also sure that Maverick Vinales, when he will be back, will be quite fast in a few races.
For sure, all the Ducatis will be very competitive. We also saw the growth of Honda, and last year we saw a fight for position from Quartararo, so let's see with the V4 that they are developing, they invested a lot on that, where they can be. From the track point of view, it will be quite exciting, and also from the market point of view it will be quite exciting, because in 2027 a lot of things will be changed.
Q: Coming back to how Aprilia finished in the top three with Bezzecchi at the expense of one of Ducati's top riders. Once Bezzecchi found his rhythm with the bike, he was very quick, taking pole position a number of times. What are your thoughts on Bezzecchi, and what did he do that was different to what Raul Fernandez was doing, because he was perhaps the most experienced rider on the RS-GP in 2025?
Rivola: Yeah, you're right. I think that the key of Marco was the commitment to work, the approach to grow with the team. For sure, let's say that the approach of Marco together with the rest of the team was the key. To keep growing and understanding, so when you have the right approach, then you explain exactly what you need from the bike, and it's difficult to find in a rider that kind of approach, because riders are getting so much adrenaline, and it's difficult for them to control sometimes. That was also for Marco, but he took a constructive way of working with the team and that made a difference.
Q: Speaking of Martin, his 2025 season was far from perfect. What's happening with his recovery?
Rivola: He still needs time to recover physically, so we will see him in Sepang after the shakedown with Savadori. In the first test we will use the 2026 bikes for Jorge (Martin) and Marco (Bezzecchi), and we will start the program in a standard way. Obviously, Jorge will start from a bit more far from the point of adapting to the bike, so it's going to take a bit of time, but as long as Jorge will be physically fine, he will recover, I'm sure. That's the deal.
Q: You've already said that in 2025 you see yourself as the top of the losers, so what is your goal for the 2026 MotoGP season?
Rivola: I don't think that there is much to say about the 2026 target. As I said, I think we need to fight for the title. I think we have everything, the company is ready, the bike is ready, the rider is ready. The key will be maybe to understand where Jorge is compared to Marco. As I said, it will need a bit more time, but if we keep working in the way we did in 2025, I don't see a reason to take a step back.
Q: Alright, now veering away a little bit from the riders and towards the bike itself, today's MotoGP bikes are missiles on two wheels with the speeds they can reach. And in recent years, we've seen a lot of aerodynamic wizardry, as well as ride height devices trickle in. I just wanted to hear your thoughts, are you in favour of more aerodynamics and more devices that help bikes go faster? Or are you a fan of more analogue old-school racing where it's more the rider and the machine doing more of the hard work?
Rivola: I think that the 2027 regulation will match what you are saying. I'm not a fan of the current devices. As you say, maybe in the future the bike will be more rider-related because of the regulation. Regarding aerodynamics, honestly I'm a fan of aerodynamics. We push a lot in Aprilia to invest in aerodynamics, we understand the value of it. And I think that even if it will be introduced in 2027, at the same time, I think there will be a lot of margin to the performance from the aerodynamic point of view. I understand that with aero downforce bikes it becomes a bit more difficult in a way to ride because you need to understand that downforce brings, let's say, [many] kilograms on the floor. So the bike becomes a bit more heavy.
But in the end, I think it's good to see the maximum expression of what a motorcycle can do in MotoGP. We also like to see wings and stuff like that. Maybe smaller, fine, to get a better show. But I like to see those kinds of bikes.
Q: Coming back to the riders, Trackhouse also had a pretty respectable season. Raul Fernandez took his maiden victory. Do you have any sort of feedback or expectations from them when it comes to results for Aprilia? Rookie Ai Ogura was promising in the first part of the season as well, but then that injury really hindered him in the latter half of the 2025 season.
Rivola: Honestly, the expectation for Raul is quite high because finally he has, let's say, the right feeling. I think he understood a certain way of working to bring performance, I think we also better understood him. We took a bit of time, more than expected, but for sure he's a great talent and for sure he showed in his career a huge speed.
Regarding Ai (Ogura), yes, as you said, he started very surprising, obviously more than expected, very, very fast. But you know when you're first here and you approach a MotoGP [bike] and you start falling off a few times, maybe you lose a bit of confidence, so it's part of the learning process to get the confidence back. Expectation on Ai, for me, I expect him to be quite competitive.
Q: What did Savadori do in his development and testing process that helped you guys make that crucial step forward? I understand that he's been a very big figure in developing the RS-GP, could you share a little more insight on that?
Rivola: The job of Lorenzo is not easy, because most of the time he needs to sacrifice his performance for the bike's performance. I was very happy to see that when there were many test riders racing together in the same race, that he was the fastest.
Apart from Paul Espargaro, who for me is not a test rider, he's still a race rider. The fact that this year, with the injury of Jorge, we had to cancel a lot of testing, so we took the opportunity to test during the race with Sava (Savadori). Quite a difficult approach for Savadori to follow, but he has the right attitude and the characteristics of someone that is committed to work for the company.
Q: What is one unique thing that Aprilia has that you feel is an advantage over everybody else in the MotoGP field today?
Rivola: I think from the technical side, aerodynamics is a key point for us compared to our competitors. But on the other side, I think the culture that we have here in Noale, let's say the ‘racing spirit’ we have here, and the commitment we have, and the speed to make things happen that we have here, are a big advantage.
Q: Aprilia has been doing MotoGP for quite some time now, but what about returning to WSBK? The RSV4 is really a proven platform and won three titles back in the day. Apart from being 1100 and the rules specifying that you need a 1000, any other reason why we haven't seen Aprilia in WSBK for quite some time now?
Rivola: I think that when I joined MotoGP racing, the choice was to focus on MotoGP because that was the priority in the core business. Now it would make sense to also come back to WSBK, but at the moment the regulation doesn't allow us to be there for some reason.
At the moment the superbike [WSBK] is a sort of B-class compared to MotoGP, so it's not really super, let's say, ‘attractive’ to be there. I don't see many spectators, I don't see too many people following. If the superbike will be back to what it was many years ago when we won the last titles, we are happy to think about that. I think that, as before, it's a sort of never-ending bike. It's always more and more mature, so it's still very competitive.
And obviously the racing department will keep diving into the performance of it. I'm happy with the bike, it can be a winning bike, but I don't see the reason to do it now.
