Coming into the 2025 MotoGP season, it’s fair to say that Marco Bezzecchi was expected to play second fiddle inside the revamped factory Aprilia squad to fellow new signing and recently crowned world champion Jorge Martin.
However, with Martin ruled out of action on the RS-GP thanks to a testing crash on the very first morning of his pre-season at Sepang, his former Moto3 championship rival Bezzecchi has been presented with a dream chance.
And he’s capitalised on it.
While Bezzecchi might have been an Aprilia candidate from the very start of its quest to replace the retiring Aleix Espargaro, he was by no means its first preference as soon as it became clear that Martin was on the market.
Instead, Bezzecchi only picked up a ride with the team when Maverick Vinales rather unexpectedly headed to KTM, leaving a seat alongside Martin that Aprilia had hoped would maintain some continuity as Espargaro exited not just the race seat but ultimately Aprilia altogether to begin a new career as a Honda test rider.
Given Martin’s run to the championship, it’s no surprise that all the focus on Aprilia heading into 2025 was around the bike with the shiny new #1 plate on it.
But that focus was even more lopsided because of Bezzecchi’s disappointing 2024 season. The 2023-spec Ducati he was riding at VR46 not gelling with Michelin’s 2024-spec rear tyre was more of a problem for Bezzecchi’s riding style than for any of the other three GP23 riders. That showed in miserable performances a long way off his title bid a year previously.
It meant Aprilia team boss Massimo Rivola, a long time supporter of Bezzecchi, went into 2025 having to defend his ‘other’ new signing before he’d even got on the bike. But at least he had Bezzecchi’s superb 2023 to point to.
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“When a rider one year performs in such a good way but the following year isn’t performing in such a good way, you start wondering if that means not enough talent or if there are some other issues that could come from different parts,” Rivola admitted shortly after signing Bezzecchi.
“At the end, my feeling is that the real Bezz is the one of last year [2023] and not that of this year [2024]. I hope that for this year, he keeps the faith, and I trust in his speed and his talent quite a lot.”
Now Bezzecchi has absolutely proven that trust in him was justified by making the most of Martin’s Sepang testing injury and flipping the pre-season expectations on their head.
Coming out of both the Sepang test and its follow up outing at Buriram, the scene of this year’s first race, as by far the fastest of those changing bikes to adapt to a new machine, expectations of Bezzecchi for the year ahead are now very different.
He’s not just quick but also something of a revelation to the Aprilia team. Its personnel have admitted privately that what Bezzecchi’s delivered on track has far exceeded even their hopes of what they’d get from a naturally talented and somewhat instinctive rider.
That talk hasn’t just been about Bezzecchi’s talent but how he’s taken to his new bike development role with aplomb in his first factory MotoGP ride. There has been lots of positive whispering about the quality of the 26-year-old’s feedback within the box.
And, with the 2025 RS-GP looking to already be a step ahead of last year’s, at least in part thanks to that feedback, Bezzecchi’s first few races at Aprilia might look very different to what was expected.
Instead of needing some races to get used to the bike (like Martin almost certainly will after missing all of this year’s pre-season testing), there are genuine chances for Bezzecchi to shine in the early part of the season.
The most notable of those, of course, will be round two in Argentina, at a Termas de Rio Honda circuit where both bike and rider have won in the past.
But if pre-season form continues, it’s unlikely to be the only big opportunity for Bezzecchi in 2025.
