It’s pretty ridiculous to find a rider officially confirming that he’ll race with a team that signs a two-year contract for that second season. Still, that’s the situation where Motogup was discovered at the Czech Grand Prix on Thursday as Jorge Martin made his long-awaited first appearance in front of the media in the wake of a contract dispute with Aprilia.
The current Zenith follow-up of his motorcycle racing career is nothing but a disastrous flop for Martin. Two injured players ruled him out of the preseason Test and the first three rounds. He sent him on the sidelines again after crashing on his return at the Qatar Grand Prix.
A few weeks later, Martin took a secret visit to Le Mans Paddock to discuss with Aprilia, who had activated the performance clause in his contract to quit the brand at the end of 2025.
Aprilia reportedly reportedly could leave if he wasn’t in the top five of the championship at the end of the French Grand Prix, but Martin was ineffective because he was barely on the RS-GP. Marco Betzecki then won the British Grand Prix. At a lucky moment of timing, Aprilia grabbed to publicly tell Martin that “we have a bike that can win.”
Martin fought his corner a few days later in a personal statement and asked him what he believed he was a respected contractual right. Manager Albert Varera then stormed at the Dutch Grand Prix when Martin said he was “no contract” in 2026.
Aprilia was in that position again, but escalated things by dragging this into the courtroom and saying she was happy. The Italian courts didn’t know exactly how punctual it was, and then Martin Camp had requested Aprilia to begin those cases as soon as possible, in order to resolve this issue by the end of the season. Aprilia, naturally, is not surprised by the ball on the court, but is aware of the lack of potential alternatives available in 2026, and has chosen to continue checking out the watch.
The move from Martin Camp did not say that Dona CEO Carmelo Ezpereta would not be able to accept the reigning champion on the 2026 grid if he did not legally violate the Pridelia deal before signing elsewhere.
During the German Grand Prix last weekend, Martin decided to stay, which sparked a report from Spain. In hindsight, the explosive interview with Varera during the Ascent Round appears to be Martin Camp’s hopeless play to escalate this to the court.
From this point of view, Aprilia retracted the big paddock victory. Not only has it got what it has been wanting for so long, it has emerged as a much stronger entity. It’s far from the brand that Andrea Iannone was stuck five years ago through a useless doping trial.
Jorge Martin, 2025 MotoGp Czech Grand Prix, Press Conference. Credit: Gold and goose.
©Gold & Goose
Jorge Martin finally answered some important questions
At any point through this, Aprilia doesn’t necessarily position her as looking for it, but Thursday at Brno was ultimately a revenge. A 20-minute press conference aired around the world when Martin had to sit down with enough offensive questions that allowed the media to convened and face them head on.
That being said, it was also time for him to finally give his side of the story. And it was a crucial moment. Because Aprilia was mostly the party of this conflict that won in the court of public opinion. Martin would have been stupid to expect otherwise – this took over the villain’s place.
Martin claims he does what he feels is best for his career, but there is no reasonable consequence that he has no doubts about your status as a world champion, and therefore the MotoGP ambassador, trying to exercise any contract clause that is barely riding a bike.
What inspired him to become smarter for Aprilia was the way he went to the bat for Martin, causing tension with other manufacturers by trying to change the rules so he could personally test it before returning to the race. The rules were eventually passed and were implemented immediately.
But Aprilia has always moved forward with the belief that this relationship can be repaired. That’s what Martin agreed in Brno on Thursday. “Relationships are like a roller coaster. Finally, if you like others, you work hard to stay together.
Martin explained why this course of action came in the first place. The Spaniard admitted that he had “doubt” about racing again after Qatar fell crash. He says this led to his push to change his career – but it was somewhat contradictory when he later asked about this.
“When I signed the contract, I think I wanted to be safe in this respect,” he began. “So, I put this clause in that I certainly couldn’t ride the bike, so I could see the results from other riders, but I wanted to understand it myself, so I wanted to test it myself. We never had a chance. We never happened, but most importantly, we are here now.”
But there is certainly true that he has an impact on his injuries. At one stage he talked emotionally about the support he was receiving from his girlfriend and father. But why did he feel that leaving Aprilia was the course of his next action. It suggests he lost confidence in his bike due to the crash, but he never said this explicitly.
Most of the time, Martin did a lot to repair some of the damage done to his reputation at this press conference. And it’s hard not to respect him for not completely betraying his actions. He owned them and told the world “I have no regrets about anything.”
“I didn’t apologise to them (my team) because I feel there’s no need to apologize to him. “And now, we’re together, so we’ll start together and talk together. And if they feel like I have to do something to improve the relationship, I’ll do it.”
Perhaps this is the biggest hurdle Aprilia is currently facing. Motivate the garage aspect, pour your heart and soul into it, and ensure that Martin has a competitive bike under him. This will be doubly difficult in the context of the 2027 rider market. Martin is almost certainly turning to moving elsewhere.
That said, he hasn’t been stubborn recently to ignore his on-track with Aprilia. “I’m not a fool. I know we have a lot of possibilities together.
Martin is not expected to perform any miracles at the Czech Grand Prix this weekend. However, the second half of this season will ultimately be the most important of his career. If he has hopes for a title challenge in 2026, he will need to prove he is still competitive to fully repair his relationship with Aprilia.
But likewise, if he is far below expectations for the rest of the season and early next year, manufacturers who are previously interested in world champions may not be more likely to choose him given the package he is carrying with him now.
Regardless of what is said in public now, it is important to note that this is far from a settlement between Aprilia and Martin. Aprilia fought that corner and Martin had to admit defeat. Otherwise, he faced a potentially prolonged court skirmish that he might have seen in 2026 watch MotoGP from TV.
However, that doesn’t mean that we can’t do anything good from now on. Through this, Martin learned some valuable life lessons. That’s an attractive outlook. And if that’s what he saw as he approached the top step on the podium for half next year, all sins would be easily forgiven…