Aprilia ‘not scared by any track’ after late 2025 MotoGP charge

Aprilia ambassador and four-time 250cc world champion Max Biaggi says there is no track on the MotoGP calendar that now “scares” the Noale factory.

Aprilia enjoyed a strong end to the 2025 MotoGP season, winning three out of the last four grands prix and ending up runner-up in the manufacturers’ championship for the first time in its history.

While the jury is out on whether it can make another step to close the gap to Ducati, with data showing that it still isn’t doing enough to become a consistent challenger, Biaggi is more than satisfied with the progress Aprilia made over the course of 2025.

Pointing to the results of not just star performer Marco Bezzecchi but also Trackhouse’s Raul Fernandez, the 54-year-old believes Aprilia has fixed its major weaknesses and turned the RS-GP into an all-rounder.

“Now the bike doesn’t have any weak points. On some tracks during last year [2024] and the year before, it was very difficult for us. Now, there is no track that scares us,” Biaggi told TNT Sports.

“If you look at the performance, we can be top-three, top-five all the time. And not only Marco, you also see Fernandez starting to perform very well, and he won a race. I have to say this bike is not only for Marco or for [Jorge] Martin, but for other good riders [as well].”

During 2025, Bezzecchi re-established himself as a frontrunner in MotoGP, having endured a difficult final season with VR46 the year prior.

Apart from his grand prix victories at Silverstone, Portimao and Valencia, he also won three sprint races in the final part of the season to end the year third in the standings, only behind Marc and Alex Marquez.

While Marc Marquez’sinjury-forced early exit from the championship makes it impossible to judge how Bezzecchi would have compared against him at full strength, the Italian did go toe-to-toe with the factory Ducati rider in a thrilling duel at Misano earlier in the year.

Biaggi believes that if anyone can stop Marquez in the final season of the current regulation cycle, it is Bezzecchi.

“It’s been a great season from the way he started the first few races to the way he ended up,” he said. “I think it’s an incredible increase of performance, and Valencia also proved once again he can be the one who can fight with Marc Marquez.

“If you see Bezzecchi’s performances, he did all these performances by himself. He had no team-mate for one year [because of Martin’s injuries], so he tested himself, he proved the bike can be better race by race, podium by podium, winning multiple races.

Marco Bezzecchi, Aprilia Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images

“So I think it’s a very stable performance and we have no doubt that in 2026 he can be the one who can fight with Marc Marquez.”

Biaggi also dropped a tongue-in-cheek remark about Ducati’s German ownership while lauding Aprilia — a relatively small manufacturer — for punching above its weight in 2025.

“I’ll be the ambassador worldwide [for Aprilia in 2026],” he said. “I’ve been in this role for the last almost 10 years, and it’s a big privilege for me being affiliated with this manufacturer, and honestly, the only Italian manufacturer here in this paddock because we know Ducati is German by Audi [ownership].

“At the end of the day, we are the only ones [that are Italian]. We’re very proud of that and Gruppo Piaggio did an amazing job and put in a lot of effort. It’s not possible if you don’t put in a lot of effort.

“So, I think there has been this persistent increase in the budget or something every year to make it happen, and we gained the world champion [Martin] with us.

“Okay, we have a lot of bad luck because he injured himself a couple of times this year [2025] but next year our team, not only the bike but the team, can be very, very strong.”

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— The Motorsport.com Team