Marco Bezzecchi Joins Aprilia for the 2025 Season
Marco Bezzecchi will join Aprilia for the 2025 MotoGP season, partnering the current championship leader, Jorge Martin.
Marco Bezzecchi will leave the Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team at the end of the 2024 season after five seasons with the team in Moto2 and MotoGP, first joining them back in 2020. Bezzecchi has achieved three Grand Prix victories in MotoGP with the Ducati-powered VR46 team, all of those victories coming last year on the Desmosedici GP22, using older machinery than his championship rivals.
The 25-year old Italian has been a part of the VR46 longer than he has been in the premier class, joining the academy back in 2015 after impressing Valentino Rossi during his CIV Moto3 campaign.
After a difficult first half of the 2024 season, scoring points at only 5 of the 14 races so far including sprint races – Bezzecchi has decided to leave the VR46 Racing Team and join a new manufacturer in Aprilia. The Italian replaces Maverick Vinales, who announced his shocking move to the newly named Red Bull KTM Tech3 team earlier this month.
With Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales, Aprilia has become a highly competitive team on the MotoGP grid, consistently battling for podium places and being the only manufacturer besides KTM to really mount a challenge against the dominant Ducati’s. However, with the aforementioned departure of Vinales, and Espargaro’s retirement at the end of this season, it left Aprilia with both seats to fill.
Aprilia had initially stated earlier in the season that they wanted an Italian rider to race with them, an Italian manufacturer, and whilst there were many rumours that it would be Enea Bastianini joining from the Factory Ducati team – Marco Bezzecchi seems to have fit their criteria, and boasts thoroughly impressive results despite this season being a relatively difficult one.
With Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia at the Factory Ducati team next season, this Aprilia lineup has the potential to upset the current equilibrium for Ducati, who have enjoyed a lot of success over the last few years, with multiple satellite teams also at their disposal.
Where the Ducati machinery has been seen to be particularly dominant on the straights with their engine power, and in the braking zones – the Aprilia has appeared much more stable through corners, the bike being able to respond well to rider input. Where the Ducati focused on corner entry and straight line speed, the Aprilia seems to hold a strong drive out of a corner. Trackhouse Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez was leading the Spanish Grand Prix at Catalunya earlier this year, which is a tight and twisty circuit that the Aprilia adapted strongly to.
With the Factory Ducati and now Factory Aprilia lineups decided, it leaves Honda and Yamaha with a difficult task, to approach riders and persuade them to join motorcycles that have hardly been seen on the broadcast, as they are usually towards the back of the grid.
Featured image – Piaggio Group
