What a difference a year makes. This time last season, after the first three Grands Prix, Aprilia languished in fourth place in the constructors’ world championship, behind Ducati, Honda and KTM, with 33 points to Ducati’s 111.
After Sunday’s US Grand Prix, Aprilia leads the 2026 constructors’ title race, with 101 points to Ducati’s 69 and KTM’s 65, so it has almost tripled its score, while Ducati’s has nearly halved. At the same time, factory Aprilia team-mates Marco Bezzecchi and Jorge Martin stand first and second in the riders’ championship.
This is a massive turnaround, but the Noale manufacturer’s success isn’t an overnight thing. It’s been coming since 2019, when parent company Piaggio decided to take MotoGP more seriously, increasing its investment and hiring former Ferrari Formula 1 sporting director Massimo Rivola as its MotoGP boss.
Rivola brought new ways of working to the project, encouraging Aprilia engineers to open their minds.
“Ideas come from people that aren’t shy to raise an arm to say something if they have an idea, if they know their boss won’t kill them,” he says.
Bezzecchi’s five consecutive victories puts Aprilia up there with the other MotoGP greats
Among the ideas that fermented in Noale during 2019 was the decision to build an all-new engine for 2020, replacing the RS-GP’s 75-degree V4 with a 90-degree V4, as used by Ducati and Honda.
Since then Aprilia has been on a continually upward trajectory: first four-stroke MotoGP podium in 2021, first victory in 2022, first one-two race result in 2023, first top-three championship result in 2025 and now leading both rider and constructor championships for the first time.
The true performance of a MotoGP bike can only really be judged when many riders can use it to be fast. And that is exactly where the RS-GP is right now: Bezzecchi ruling the first three GPs of 2026, Martin taking four podiums, including a sprint win, Ai Ogura surely on the podium at COTA, but for a technical glitch, and Raul Fernández, twice on the podium in Thailand and winning in Australia last October.
Bezzecchi, Martin and their RS-GP machines ran rampant at COTA
Aprilia
Aprilia may be relatively new to winning in MotoGP, but Bezzecchi’s five consecutive victories – at Portimao and Valencia last year, then Buriram, Goiania and COTA this – puts it right up there with the other greats of the championship: Ducati, Honda, Gilera, MV Agusta, Suzuki and Yamaha, the only other brands to go unbeaten for so long.
At the same time, Bezzecchi’s five in a row puts his name up there with the all-time greats of motorcycle racing: Marc Márquez, Mick Doohan, Giacomo Agostini, Mike Hailwood, John Surtees and Geoff Duke, the sport’s most hallowed names that have towered over MotoGP since the 1950.
“I’m speechless,” said Bezzecchi after his latest success. “It’s strange to hear my name with those names.”