{"id":641342,"date":"2026-04-30T21:09:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T21:09:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/641342\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T21:09:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T21:09:17","slug":"aprilia-respecting-850cc-plan-amid-motogp-title-chance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/641342\/","title":{"rendered":"Aprilia \u201crespecting\u201d 850cc plan amid MotoGP title chance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Aprilia technical director Fabiano Sterlacchini insists the factory will not deviate from its 850cc development strategy despite leading the 2026 MotoGP standings.<\/p>\n<p>Aprilia became the latest <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MotoGP<\/a> manufacturer to release track images of its 2027 prototype during a debut with<a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/news\/1093738\/1\/first-look-aprilias-2027-motogp-prototype-track-jerez\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> test rider Lorenzo Savadori at Jerez on Wednesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Just three days earlier, Aprilia suffered its first grand prix defeat of the season at the hands of Gresini Ducati\u2019s Alex Marquez.<\/p>\n<p>However, factory riders<a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/995158\/marco-bezzecchi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Marco Bezzecchi <\/a>and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/973236\/jorge-martin\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Jorge Martin <\/a>still lead the world championship standings, putting Aprilia firmly in contention for a first premier-class title.<\/p>\n<p>Given that historic chance, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/teams\/aprilia-racing\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Aprilia<\/a> needs to strike a delicate balance between committing development resources to this year\u2019s 1000cc machine and working on the future 850cc\/Pirelli bike.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe made a plan at the beginning of how we should deploy the two projects together,\u201d Sterlacchini said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn this moment, basically, we are respecting the plan, even though we are, let me say, succeeding more than we expected [this season].<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut anyway, we want to keep going with our plan because the resources that we are dedicating to the 850, for the moment, are okay.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the meantime, we have to not lose focus to try to improve and take the opportunity of a good moment with the 2026 bike.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Aprilia continued development of its 1000cc bike during Monday\u2019s Jerez test, which finished with an RS-GP sweep of the top three.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>Bezzecchi is eleven points clear of Martin and 30-points ahead of the top Ducati of Fabio di Giannantonio, after four rounds.<\/p>\n<p>Aprilia also leads the constructors\u2019 and teams\u2019 world championships.<\/p>\n<p>After a wet debut on Wednesday, Aprilia\u2019s 850 is due back on track for a final day of private testing on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Although Bezzecchi has re-signed, Martin is set to be replaced by Ducati\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/911999\/francesco-bagnaia\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pecco Bagnaia<\/a> for 2027.<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aprilia technical director Fabiano Sterlacchini insists the factory will not deviate from its 850cc development strategy despite leading&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[18009,10669,64,63,5744,10732,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-641342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-aprilia","tag-aprilia-racing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-jorge-martin","tag-marco-bezzecchi","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}