One MotoGP champion’s form rebound is as heartwarming as it is maddening

Whatever happens going forward throughout the rest of the 2026 MotoGP season, Jorge Martin has proven his quality as a rider. After three rounds of a campaign he wasn’t fully prepared for, owing to recovery from surgery he kept under wraps in the winter, he has come out of the blocks with a mean swing.

An impressive fourth in the Thailand season-opener was a good start to the second term of his troubled Aprilia tenure. A brace of podiums at the Brazilian Grand Prix was a step forward that Massimo Rivola, Aprilia CEO, anticipated eventually, but perhaps coming far earlier than anyone imagined.

Everything came together in the sprint at the United States Grand Prix, as Martin went against Aprilia’s wishes and ran the medium rear tyre instead of the soft. The only rider on the grid to do so, it paid off with a sensational first victory of any kind since the 2024 Malaysian Grand Prix sprint, just weeks ahead of his coronation.

It harked back to a similar situation at the Australian Grand Prix in 2023, when Martin went against convention to run the soft tyre. It backfired, as he slipped from the lead to fifth across the final lap. It was something that hurt him in his bid for a first world title. The COTA sprint showed how fine a line it is in MotoGP between genius and ruin. But that somewhat overshadows a critical element that contributed to his win last weekend: Martin, having dragged himself through hell, has shown immense growth since then.

“As soon as I feel ready, I feel nobody can stop me,” Martin declared during Aprilia’s launch event in Milan in January.

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Those comments came after a debut season with the brand that saw him contest just seven rounds. From the get-go, Martin was plagued by injury, missing the first three rounds, and then sitting out between Qatar and the Czech Grand Prix after another serious set of injuries. He would suffer another layoff after a collision with team-mate Marco Bezzecchi in the Motegi sprint.

It was during the layoff after Qatar that Martin hit rock bottom. His partner revealed in a documentary later in 2025 that, while laid up in hospital in Qatar, he said: “He was in so much pain and we were terrified. He told me he was sure he was going to die. He was devastated; he doubted he could ever race again.”

How much this contributed to his decision to try and activate a performance clause in his Aprilia contract will probably never be truly known. Martin, upon his return at Brno last season, said it was. Rivola revealed last year that, “Albert Valera, his manager came to me and said, ‘You know what, I think we could leave, and Honda is quite interested in him, the offer is really good.’”

Whatever the reality, Aprilia and Martin in equal measure deserve a lot of respect for burying the hatchet the way they have. Aprilia was adamant Martin would honour his contract, but that then sets out the almost impossible task of trying to extract the most out of a rider who doesn’t want to be there.

In a lot of cases, that is irreconcilable. Not for Aprilia, however.

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And that has been repaid already in 2026, with more still to come from a Martin who has now got his confidence back. His COTA sprint win briefly put him in the lead of the championship. Though team-mate Marco Bezzecchi has won all grands prix so far, a second in the main race at COTA means Martin – who has been ultra-consistent in 2026 – is just four points down ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix at the end of April.

Jorge Martin, Marco Bezzecchi, 2026 Brazil MotoGP

Rivola now faces his toughest test as Aprilia chief

Rivola, the ex-Ferrari chief, has dealt with a lot of difficult moments in his time with Aprilia. He navigated it through Andrea Iannone’s doping case, and the blowback that was a lack of interest in filling his seat for the 2021 season. The Martin contract situation was another delicate matter that he has successfully brought his team through.

Arguably, though, a title battle between Bezzecchi and Martin, two riders who are cordial now but have a spiky history, will be the toughest test of his MotoGP career.

And, while only three rounds are in the books, it’s hard to consider Martin as anything but a championship protagonist now. At three different circuits, in completely different conditions, he has now proved he can be a consistent podium contender.

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There is very little data to go on from the 2025 season to accurately compare the step Martin has made against Bezzecchi. The most representative weekends last season spanned Brno to Misano, a five-round stretch that marked his only run not interrupted by injury.

Jorge Martin vs Marco Bezzecchi 2025RaceQualifying gapRace gapCzechia0.970s14.067sAustria0.604sDNFHungary0.570s3.581sBarcelona0.044sN/A (Bez DNF)San Marino0.847s29.369s*

Only once in the above sample was Martin’s pace similar to Bezzecchi’s, though the former fell out of Q1 while the latter’s Q2 was surprisingly underwhelming. The grand prix gap at Misano is inflated by Martin having a problem on the sighting lap and being forced to start the warm-up lap from pitlane, netting him a double long lap penalty. Still, there has been a noticeable step at the start of 2026.

Jorge Martin vs Marco Bezzecchi 2026RaceQualifying gapRace gapThailand0.349s12.182sBrazil0.150s3.231sUSA0.367s2.036s

At no point last year was Martin ever under 3.5s away from Bezzecchi at the chequered flag in grands prix. That’s happened twice already in 2026. His qualifying laps have all been legitimately closer to Bezzecchi’s, though ragging the RS-GP was something the Italian took time to understand last year, and Martin is going through that process now.

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While Martin is yet to beat Bezzecchi on a Sunday, that does now feel like a matter of when rather than if. Bezzecchi is on an unbeaten Sunday run of 121 consecutive laps led, amounting to five grand prix victories. His form is imperious, but not impenetrable. He’s already had two sprint crashes from the opening three rounds.

Rivola warned in Austin that, once Bezzecchi hooks up Saturdays, he’s going to be a hard rider to beat. But Martin’s consistency won him the world title in 2024. He’s the only rider other than Acosta to have scored points in every sprint and main race so far this season. Form like that will keep him firmly in the hunt until he makes those final steps to fully gel with the bike. Though he has made a strong start to the campaign, it easy to forget just how little seat time Martin has had on this RS-GP since his first contact with it in November 2024.

If all carries on as it does, Aprilia will have to start managing heightened tensions within its ranks. But Rivola has already noted that team orders are off the table: “Both are free to race until the math eliminates one of them. The important thing is that there is respect on the track. And on this point, we are very clear.”

Jorge Martin, 2026 MotoGP Brazilian Grand Prix, parc ferme. Credit: Gold and Goose.

Any title challenge for Martin and Aprilia is bittersweet

The elephant in the room amid Martin’s resurgence is the fact that he almost certainly has no future at Aprilia. Though both parties were able to let water flow under the bridge last year, the wound was never going to heal.

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Even before testing had gotten underway this year, Martin was reported to be near a deal to join Yamaha in 2027. Nothing has been confirmed yet, but Martin’s 2026 results have also come alongside fresh reports that double world champion Pecco Bagnaia has penned a two-plus-two deal with Aprilia to join the already-signed Bezzecchi next season.

Contracts in MotoGP are never as binding as they ought to be. But it does seem like all avenues for true reconciliation in the form of a new contract have been shut down.

In such a volatile rider market (which has been stalled by ongoing talks between the manufacturers and the championship over a new deal), moves had to be made quickly. Inevitably, that leaves only your most recent results as your selling point, and Martin’s stockroom was empty. Aprilia, perhaps, could have been tempted into giving Martin some grace in 2026 to see how he started, but that was hard to justify given the contract dispute.

There’s no doubt that Aprilia will be happy to bring Bagnaia into its fold, but it’s also hard to see it not having any regrets over how the Martin situation (not that it had much control over it) unfolded, particularly if he does sustain a championship challenge this year.

That said, Martin is the one who loses out the most. He is going to a Yamaha project that, at this stage, even with a major rules overhaul coming, looks years away from being competitive. With just a little bit of patience (and, perhaps better management) he would have had all that for the long-term at Aprilia.

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What is admirable about Martin, however, is his convictions. He backed himself to sign for Aprilia when Ducati made a U-turn on its decision to give him the factory seat for 2025. He walked away from the title-winning bike to do so. And when he returned at Brno last year following his first sets of injuries, he repeated that he had no regrets over what had transpired because he thought he was doing what was right for himself.

So, he will go to Yamaha with full commitment and a much more mature outlook for what is bound to be the toughest challenge of his MotoGP career. It’s just a shame that he will do so again after turning his back on the grid’s best bike…

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One MotoGP champion’s form rebound is as heartwarming as it is maddening

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