Bezzecchi warns Aprilia, there’s a mistake to avoid: "We need to be careful"

Bezzecchi is fairly satisfied with the work Aprilia has done, although he now prefers to keep a low profile.

It’s the final year of the current technical regulations and with the current tire supplier (Michelin), Aprilia has a major goal: to win its first MotoGP world title. Over the winter there was a big push to bring a race-winning RS-GP26 to the pre-season tests. Jorge Martin can’t ride at Sepang, but Marco Bezzecchi is once again stepping into the role of development leader, working meticulously to put himself in a position to fight for the 2026 world crown.

The rider from Rimini is pleased with how things are going in Malaysia, with lots of technical updates to try before putting together the final technical package: "We’re working well. Sure, there are still many things to test and plenty of work to do - reports crash.net - but for now I really can’t complain. I’m having fun. This is a track where we had a lot of difficulties last year in testing and also in the GP, whereas in Buriram it went slightly better. Track conditions are very good right now, and it’s always hard to find a solid base when the situation is like this."

The particularly favorable conditions during testing can sometimes be misleading; care and precision are needed in evaluating every aspect. Bezzecchi and the Aprilia team don’t want to get it wrong: "We need to be careful and focused to understand what really makes the difference on the bike and what is giving us performance thanks to the track. In any case, these are two important tracks for us on which to introduce components to the bike."

The third-place finisher in the 2025 MotoGP World Championship doesn’t point to a specific area targeted for progress; the entire RS-GP25 is being assessed for potential tweaks, big or small: "There are still many areas to improve - he explains - still many parts to test. So it’s hard to name a specific one. We’re working overall on the whole new bike, which doesn’t seem bad. But the engineers want to see a lot more data, and I still need many more laps to adapt to all the changes. That’s the main goal of testing."

Bezzecchi has urged the Aprilia Racing team to keep their feet on the ground, but he’s also happy to see that several of the new parts brought are working. On the final day of testing at Sepang, one of the goals will be to run longer stints to better evaluate tire behavior, an ever-central topic in MotoGP.