MotoGP world champion Jorge Martin is scheduled to make his debut at the Qatar Grand Prix this weekend at the Aprilia race.
The Spaniard has not taken action since crashing on the first day of his tests at Sepang and suffering multiple fractures.
He was then further injured in a training incident before the Thai Grand Prix. That means you missed the first three rounds of the season.
Jorge Martin made his Aprilia debut this week by travelling to Qatar and is undergoing his final medical checkup at the circuit this Thursday.
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“Great news that he’s really coming back,” Crash Motog editor Peter McLaren said on his latest Crash MotoGP podcast.
“Great news to regain the world champion, number one plate, obviously great news for Aprilia.
“(He’s) signed their big stars and they still couldn’t race him.
“It’s a very different bike now. Aprilia is doing very well. Martin knows Qatar is very good. He has performed well over the years since his debut.
“It would help a little, but the big question mark is fitness. What we’re talking about, 10 fractures, a training accident a few days before the Thai Grand Prix.
“He couldn’t take this test that they want to do, but I’m sure he can continue the weekend if he goes there.
“I don’t know how much pain he will be, I don’t know how fast he will be. He will brush his teeth and pull his knees out. The distance in the race will be a big question mark.
Podcast host and Crash Social Media Manager Jordan Moreland added:
“It’s the mental side, but he’s very strong on that side too. I give him that credit.”
While not much expectation from Martin in terms of performance, senior journalist at Clash Lewis Duncan also argues that Aprilia must take a very careful approach to riders.
“It’s important to ease his own expectations when Aprilia jumps on a bike,” he says.
“This is essentially a three-day test for him. To be honest with you, I don’t think it makes sense to see him even reaching Q2.
“I couldn’t do 45 minutes on FP1, and when I had 13 laps on my bike this year, and I had 90 laps in total, I was basically 40 minutes before I put the lap in 40 minutes.
“Martin and Aprilia need to go into step by step. And what’s really important here is, if Martin doesn’t suit him, if he’s in pain, if he’s struggling, they’ll step in and say, “Look, we don’t care what you say, the doctor doesn’t care, we don’t care what you said.
“This is the problem with these injuries, you get injured once and get weaker.
“The fact that he did the same thing again, it was a more complicated fracture – the kind of fracture that will end his career – I think Aprilia needs to be solid with Martin.
“Make sure he is wise and make sure his expectations are restrained. You just go in, put in the wraps and understand the bike.
“It’s good if there’s a pace there, but there’s no real need for him to do something similar to a full-fledged pole-time offensive lap.”