Reigning MotoGP champion Jorge Martin will finally return to action at this weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix, marking his first race for new team Aprilia - and offering a valuable opportunity for the Italian factory to find the answer to some very important questions that have so far gone unanswered.
That’s because while it might have been a tough start to the season for its new signing Martin, first breaking bones in a testing crash before further injuring himself while training and subsequently missing the opening three rounds, Aprilia has encountered other difficulties as well.
Martin’s new team-mate (and former Moto3 title rival) Marco Bezzecchi has had a tough time in particular, struggling to find one-lap pace on the RS-GP and suffering for it in races where he’s starting from the middle of the pack.
Scoring only 24 points from the opening three rounds was not what he or Aprilia expected, especially given both the single-lap performance and his excellent race pace he demonstrated during preseason testing.
Coming into the campaign like someone who could credibly challenge for the podiums early on at Aprilia-friendly circuits like Termas de Rio Hondo and the Circuit of the Americas, instead Bezzecchi has had a rather lacklustre start with a best finish to date of sixth.
Things have been even worse on the side of satellite rider Raul Fernandez. The only member of the Aprilia line-up to remain from last year, Fernandez has struggled with his own pre-season injuries and with issues he attributes in part to the pressure he’s under.
The only positive from the season so far has been the results of Fernandez’s Trackhouse Racing rookie team-mate Ai Ogura, who sits sixth in the championship standings - above Bezzecchi - after an impressive start that has seen him consistently fighting to be in the top six.
And those results are exactly why Martin’s return cannot come soon enough for Aprilia.
Ogura’s performances hint that there’s nothing at all wrong with the machine, but with neither of the more established riders yet able to deliver on it, it might well be that Aprilia needs the raw talent and aggression of the reigning world champion to kickstart its 2025 - even if he’s returning this coming weekend far from full fitness.
"Physically, I’m not even sure I’ll be able to finish the race, but if we can manage, it will be a victory because that will mean that I’m beginning to recover," Martin said ahead of his Qatar GP outing, for which he will be "undoubtedly not 100%".
So while he has been medically cleared to take part in the weekend, there is no guarantee he'll run the full distance.
But stamina won't be the question here, and more than any specific results Aprilia will be interested in seeing the raw pace.
Hampered by losing out on essentially all of his adaption time during testing, it’ll be interesting to see how quickly Martin can make up for that. Given that he qualified on pole position in only his second-ever MotoGP race weekend at the Lusail circuit back in 2021, he could get up to speed quickly.
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And, in reality, it’s probably in qualifying where Aprilia needs him to shine most. With Martin having established himself as 'Mr Pole Position' during his time in MotoGP, with an impressive 20 P1 starts from 74 grands prix, team boss Massimo Rivola will no doubt be expecting to see the first real measure of Aprilia's 2025 bike across one lap rather than a race distance.
It’s also where he will hope Martin can perhaps best rally the troops and help return the RS-GP to the top step of the podium.
In his absence, the team has felt like something of a disparate bunch of riders - and the return of the number one plate might well help anchor it again in a season that still has a very long time to run.
