FIRST PERSON/OPINION

By Michael Gougis

The signs have been there for several years now. On a good day, riders on Aprilia’s RS-GP have not only challenged the dominant Ducati Desmosedicis in MotoGP, but have walked away from them.

At the end of 2025, riders on the Aprilias were nearly unbeatable, taking three wins in four Grand Prix races–although, and someone has to say it, factory Aprilia rider Marco Bezzecchi had won only one race in 2025 before he rammed 2025 World Champion Marc Marquez in Indonesia and sidelined the Ducati rider with a shoulder injury that Marquez still struggles with to this day. With Marquez out for the rest of the 2025 season, Bezzecchi won two of the remaining four races, and Trackhouse Racing’s Raul Fernandez took his satellite-team RS-GP to a win in Australia.

That winning performance has continued in 2026. Bezzecchi was unbeaten in the opening three Grand Prix races and two Aprilias were on the podium in each event. Aprilia locked out the podium in France, with Jorge Martin winning over Bezzecchi and Trackhouse Racing’s Ai Ogura. Bezzecchi won at Mugello, and Ogura won at Assen. Fernandez has been on the podium twice and won two Sprint races, and Martin has added two more Sprint race wins. Even when the factory riders have faltered, the satellite riders have been at the front, proving that the bike itself is fast.

Here’s an indication of how fast the Aprilias are: Engineers from the formerly dominant Ducati factory are copying the aero appendages from Aprilia’s RS-GP and pasting them onto the Desmosedici. That move by Ducati–the company that ushered in the age of modern aerodynamic design in MotoGP–speaks volumes about the shift in status in pit lane. The innovator has become the emulator, but it is still foolish to write off the Ducati riders. Marc Marquez, while winning three of the last four Grand Prix races, is still not 100% physically fit; Alex Marquez is recovering from injury; and Francesco Bagnaia is still coming to terms with his Ducati.

But it is undeniable that Aprilia has found a combination of riders, machines and teams that has launched the brand toward the top of the race results on a consistent basis. Back in October 2024, I wrote, “Where Aprilia struggles is consistency. The team can be on another level compared to the competition one weekend and absolutely nowhere the next. And that’s why the company’s hiring of (Fabiano) Sterlacchini (as Aprilia’s MotoGP Technical Director) is a brilliant move.”

Massimo Rivola, CEO of Aprilia’s racing operations, says that while the 2026 version of the machine may obviously have new aerodynamic parts, it is actually different in almost every way from the 2025 RS-GP. I interviewed Rivola on Monday after the 2026 MotoGP race at Circuit of The Americas, during an Aprilia Racers Days event, where he had spent the morning ripping around the track on a Tuono V4. When asked how the 2026 RS-GP has evolved, and whether its improvements have mainly come from electronic, chassis, engine, or aerodynamic development, Rivola said, “Aero is something that is very visible to you all, and it is quite a big change. But it (improvement) is from all of it.”

Aprilia was the first company to get the “fat-fairing” ground effects phenomenon to function properly, and the RS-GP has proven to have amazing grip and speed in long, high-speed corners, especially those with slick surfaces. But Rivola says past versions of the bike have struggled against the competition under heavy braking. The current version, Rivola says, is far more stable during the braking phase of corner entry. And, he adds, that is a function of constant refinement of the bike.

Rivola is quick to acknowledge the influence of Technical Director Sterlacchini, who arrived before the 2025 season. Sterlacchini came from KTM, but prior to that he had spent years working with Ducati and was deeply familiar with Ducati’s working methods. Designing a MotoGP machine is hard enough; optimizing it every race weekend is even more difficult, and Sterlacchini was there to watch Ducati’s Luigi “Gigi” Dall’Igna develop the processes that led Ducati to four straight MotoGP World Championships. But while acknowledging Sterlacchini’s value, Rivola says the entire team has stepped up its game. “I’m not a fan of the idea of the one-man show,” Rivola says. “Everyone is working harder, and everyone now believes we can do it,” he says.

Rivola also praised Bezzecchi’s contribution to the project. Bezzecchi was nowhere in the beginning stages of the 2025 season, but was incredibly rapid at the end. Rivola says Bezzecchi helped the team pinpoint areas for improvement. “With Marco getting the lead of the performance and the development of the bike, I think he broadcast the direction,” Rivola says.

Aprilia’s performance so far in 2026 also illustrates just how complicated MotoGP machines have become and how hard it is to unlock their full potential. In recent years, Aprilia has been let down by inconsistency and errors, and not just on the track. Professional team managers know how important it is to create a strategy for the entire weekend that produces the best possible result. COTA served as a good example of how far Aprilia has come. On Friday, Bezzecchi and Martin each spent the whole morning on a single set of medium-compound slicks, as did Ogura. The only other rider in the top 10 in that session to do so was Alex Marquez on the Gresini Ducati GP26. By lunch on Friday, Aprilia had more data than its competitors on how worn tires would perform late in a race, and that information served as the foundation for an advantage throughout the rest of the weekend. In the Grand Prix race, Bezzecchi only struggled during braking because his bike’s rear aero had been demolished in a collision with Pedro Acosta, and Martin’s rear tire only dropped at the very end of the race. Meanwhile, Bagnaia’s Ducati ate its rear tire and he plummeted in the final laps to finish 10th. “You cannot underestimate the value of strategy,” Rivola says.