![\"Jorge](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Jorge-Martin-cornering-on-Aprilia-MotoGP-bike-scaled.jpg.webp\"\/)
<\/p>\nIs Ogura similar?<\/p>\n
Somehow, yes, probably because it\u2019s not long since he came from Moto2, so he\u2019s the kind of rider that uses the rear brake a lot and sometimes he is able to compensate even better than the others when we have a problem with the hard front tyre. In fact it\u2019s not a secret \u2013 at the tracks where we suffer the most in terms of our weakness with the front tyre, like Sepang last year, like Barcelona and Brno this year, Ogura is our fastest rider.<\/p>\n
And Fern\u00e1ndez, kind of in between?<\/p>\n
Yeah, in the beginning of our experience with Fern\u00e1ndez, at the start of 2025 and also at the start of 2026 with the new bike, he was suffering really like Jorge with the front tyre. But then, after making some adjustments to the bike and also training him in the way he should ride the bike, he improved.<\/p>\n
To be honest, I believe that for several reasons with Jorge, he\u2019s able to arrive at the same level but with a bit more difficulty, probably because he\u2019s so used to using his style.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Martin\u2019s all-action technique demands a lot from the front tyre<\/p>\n
\n Aprilia\n <\/p>\n
You\u2019re obviously Aprilia\u2019s technical director, so you\u2019re in charge of the motorcycle. But when we see Bez in a downward spiral with several crashes and injuries \u2013 a rider makes a mistake which leads to more mistakes \u2013 do you try to help the rider\u2019s mental stability as well?<\/p>\n
Yeah, my main focus is to be technical director, but in my role I also have a responsibility for the sporting side. Normally we try to address a situation in a way that tries to stimulate positive vision and positive thinking, because from a mistake you can approach it in two ways. You can use it as a basis to learn, or it can be something that makes you implode \u2013 and in this sport it\u2019s not acceptable that you use a mistake to implode.<\/p>\n
When we have a problem, you try to find a solution to work around the problem. So when Bez crashes, and we know why, so we can understand the crash, then we try to be stronger and stronger every day. And we try to do the same thing with all our riders. On the Thursday of every race, we have a meeting in preparation of the race. It\u2019s what we call a sporting meeting \u2013 when we try to define the last race we did and our preparation for the upcoming race.<\/p>\n
One of your big issues with the bike is the soft rear tyre pushing the front. I\u2019ve spoken with a few engineers about this issue \u2013 some think this will be a smaller issue with the Pirellis, others think it will be a bigger issue\u2026<\/p>\n
To be honest, it\u2019s super, super-difficult to understand what the situation will be with Pirelli, because clearly the front tyre behaviour is really different.<\/p>\n
With Michelin, it\u2019s clear that the grip balance of our bike needs to have something \u2013 probably for the same reason when the front tyre is in a weak situation for us \u2013 that helps us avoid generating too much edge grip with the rear tyre.<\/p>\n
![\"Marco](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Marco-Bezzecchi-with-Jorge-Martin-and-Ai-Ogura-on-MotoGP-podium-scaled.jpg.webp\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Bezzecchi, Martin and Ogura celebrate Aprilia\u2019s first-ever podium lockout, at Le Mans in May, with Marco De Luca, Aprilia\u2019s vehicle-dynamics chief<\/p>\n
\n Aprilia\n <\/p>\n
Which then pushes the front\u2026<\/p>\n
Exactly. Clearly, this situation has pros and cons, because with the soft rear tyre, in terms of balance and turning, we lose, but we have better acceleration. So it\u2019s a matter of having to improve the whole project \u2013 bike settings, riding styles and everything \u2013 to fully exploit the potential of the soft tyre.<\/p>\n
At the end of last year, we talked about the 850s and you were quite positive, suggesting that with less downforce and so on the racing will be better. Do you still think the racing will be more entertaining?<\/p>\n
I think so, because there is less effect in terms of aerodynamics. One of the problems we have faced in recent years is the front tyre overheating when a rider is in the slipstream of another rider. I believe, from what we\u2019ve seen so far with the Pirellis, that this problem will be much less.<\/p>\n
And will the bikes pitch more, into and out of corners, which would make them look more spectacular, because the current bikes are very flat?<\/p>\n
To be honest, it depends on what will be the requirements to make the Pirellis work. If, for example, we need a lot of load transfer, clearly we will raise the centre of gravity and clearly there could be more pitching.<\/p>\n
The original idea of the new rules was to slow the bikes by two to three seconds a lap, but it looks like they\u2019re going to be faster at some tracks. I mean, Marc said yesterday that the 850s will do one minute 18 seconds here, against one minute 19 seconds in today\u2019s qualifying session. Would you agree with that?<\/p>\n
In terms of reducing lap times by two to three seconds, forget it. I believe that at tracks like Brno, Mugello, where you have a lot of engine-limit phase, clearly we can arrive to within one second [of current lap times]. At tracks like this one [Sachsenring], purely in terms of the bikes, we will probably be super-close and it\u2019s not impossible that with the aerodynamics and reduced weight that we could be even faster. And obviously on top of this we will have different tyres.<\/p>\n
![\"Raul](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Raul-Fernandez-with-Marco-Bezzecchi-and-Jorge-Martin-scaled.jpg.webp\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Fern\u00e1ndez, Bezzecchi and Martin gave Aprilia its first-ever front-row lockout at Mugello in May<\/p>\n
\n Michelin\n <\/p>\n
When Bez crashed yesterday, isn\u2019t that the kind of crash in which the stability control should help?<\/p>\n
The problem came in the entry phase, not completely off-throttle, but closing the throttle, so in that phase you\u2019re not using traction control or stability control, it\u2019s the rider that\u2019s managing the throttle. Also, when Bez realised that the bike was sliding, he did something to avoid the highside, which amplified this super-sideways movement.<\/p>\n
At the end of the season, will you be happy to see the end of ride-height devices?<\/p>\n
I think that [the ride-height device] was the moment, because it started the discussion inside the MSMA [the manufacturers body] to try to reduce costs. Where I\u2019m coming from \u2013 basically a quarter of a century in MotoGP \u2013 the bill for the bikes is three or four times bigger now, so we have to do something. It\u2019s like what we did for top speed \u2013 reducing the displacement. You cannot ride a bike without a swingarm, but you can without a ride-height device, so it was time to remove it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Is Ogura similar? Somehow, yes, probably because it\u2019s not long since he came from Moto2, so he\u2019s the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":844010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[18009,64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-844009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-aprilia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844009","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=844009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/844010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}