Why Aprilia is getting close to challenging Ducati in MotoGP

MotoGP

The RS-GP is getting faster and faster, while Ducati continues to have its struggles with the GP25, so why can only Marc Márquez make the GP25 work?

Marco Bezzecchi leads during 2025 MotoGP Austrian Grand Prix

Bezzecchi and the Aprilia led two thirds of the race, until Márquez attacked as grip reduced in the closing stages

Dorna/MotoGP

Mat Oxley

Red Bull Ring was always a disaster track for Aprilia’s RS-GP bike. Until the Noale factory team arrived in Austria last week, its best result there was last year’s fifth place with Maverick Viñales, a whopping 24 seconds behind winner Pecco Bagnaia. A deficit of almost a second a lap.

Stop-and-go circuits like Red Bull Ring have never been kind to the RS-GP, which has always excelled at more flowing circuits: its four MotoGP victories have been achieved at Termas de Rio Hondo, Silverstone, Catalunya and COTA.

On Saturday, Marco Bezzecchi snatched pole from Ducati, the first time in five years that the Bologna brand had lost the qualifying battle around the very particular Austrian layout. On Sunday, he rode the fastest lap and led the Grand Prix until two-thirds distance.

So, what’s changed?

The RS-GP’s biggest issue for many years has been its braking performance. The bike lost time decelerating into corners, which is a big problem because MotoGP bikes spend around a third of each lap on the brakes, so this is a hugely important area for lap times and race times.

“The way the Ducati slows down is unbelievable. We cannot stop like that”

“The negative of the bike is stopping performance,” then Aprilia rider Aleix Espargaró told me a couple of years ago. “The way the Ducati slows down is unbelievable. We cannot stop like that, even though we use bigger discs. I don’t know if Ducati stop by using aero or what, but we need to improve this.”

Aprilia did improve last year but has made a huge jump in recent months, thanks to improved machine balance, better engine-brake electronics set-up and so on.

The crucial target is to help the rider use the rear tyre to complement the front tyre on the brakes, but without using the rear so much in corner entry that the tyre gets too hot, so when the rider opens the throttle the tyre is too greasy, so it spins, which has a disastrous effect on acceleration and fuel consumption. Because wheelspin is a massive waste of fuel – lots of revs but you’re going nowhere.

Fermin Aldeguer on KTM motorbike in 2025 MotoGP Austrian Grand Prix

Aldeguer (54) letting it all hang out as he prepares to attack Acosta

KTM

“To be honest, I told the team on Wednesday that top-five finishes in both races would be good for us,” said Aprilia’s race manager Paolo Bonora after Sunday’s race. “Because we know this track is very difficult for us, so to do a double top five [Bezzecchi was fourth in the sprint, less than a second off the podium] is a great result.

“Compared to last year we’ve worked a lot, particular in the hard-braking zone to make the bike more stable and more manageable, which helps the rider enter the corner with more confidence, so we’ve done a good job in this part of the track layout.

“Compared to 2024 we have also improved the acceleration phase. You can see in recent races that the bike is more stable and more manageable in this phase. This track is known for hard-braking and wheelspin from the corners. Especially with the special rear carcass [Red Bull Ring is one of several tracks where Michelin use a special heat-resistant rear slick which is less grippy than its usual rear], so the key is to manage rear grip and spin to keep tyre temperature under control and to use less fuel.

“In braking, the key is to use the front tyre and not stress the front tyre too much by also using the rear tyre in a good way. Because if you use the rear tyre too much in this phase you destroy the tyre and also you lose grip in the acceleration phase.”

Bezzecchi is rarely the most forthcoming rider, so when he was asked after the race how the Aprilia has improved, he simply said, “Forza Aprilia.”

The previous day he said, “The braking phase was difficult for us at the start of 2025, now it’s better and this is the biggest help.”

Team-mate Jorge Martin also had a good race, until he crashed. The reigning champion is still getting back into the swing of things after a series of injuries, but at one-third distance he was the fastest rider on track.

Fermin Aldeguer gives the camera a big smile after finishing on the podium in the 2025 MotoGP Austrian Grand Prix

Aldeguer is MotoGP’s youngest rider, so his first dry-race podium was a big deal. Ducati say he has huge room to improve.

Gresini

“I’m still not taking the maximum from the bike,” said Martin. “But the bike is working really well, especially considering this is the worst track for us.”

KTM also showed signs of closing the gap to Ducati, with its four riders using an upper-fairing update that makes the bike turn better, allowing riders to use less rear tyre in this part of the corner, which obviously gives them more tyre for the end of the race.

Pedro Acosta rode like a demon all weekend, taking third in the sprint, behind the Márquez brothers, and fourth in the Grand Prix, after briefly holding third.

“Turning is much better with the new aero package – we’ve made a really, really big step,” he said.

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Fellow RC16 riders Enea Bastianini and Brad Binder were also revitalised, taking their best results so far this year in fifth and seventh. Both were spectacular to watch, backing into corners much more than usual — Binder’s preferred style — because the less grippy rear tyre allowed them to do this.

Rookie Fermin Aldeguer took his first dry-race MotoGP podium with a storming ride to second place, which put winner Marc Márquez under pressure in the final stages.

The Gresini Ducati rider came through from eighth on the first lap to fifth at half distance, 3.8 seconds off the lead. From there he charged past Acosta, Bagnaia and Bezzecchi to close to within seven-tenths of Márquez. For several laps he was the fastest man on track, until Márquez got the hurry up from his team and increased his pace.

This shouldn’t have come as a surprise – Ducati signed the teenager after the 2023 Moto2 season after a series of impressive performances.

“We saw his talent and his feet on the ground,” said factory team manager Davide Tardozzi on Sunday. “And he is very young, so he has huge room for improvement.”

Aldeguer is the youngest rider on the grid. He celebrated his 20th birthday in April, which means he was born a few days before Valentino Rossi won the 2005 Spanish GP at Jerez!

Aprilia MotoGP bike in pitlane at 2025 Austrian Grand Prix

Aprilia’s RS-GP at Red Bull Ring – this is one of Martin’s bikes

Oxley

“I don’t even know how I did it,” said the Spaniard. “There are those days in which you take to the track and everything works perfectly. I had the perfect feeling from the get-go and the more I rode, the faster I got. I managed the rear tyre very well so I arrived at the last laps with something more, I am very clean with the throttle.”

“Fermin uses a lot of corner speed,” explained Márquez, who helps his young compatriot with advice. “This works well with this special tyre.”

Márquez wasn’t wrong. Aldeguer was the fastest of the podium finishers through Red Bull Ring’s third sector, which includes the circuit’s only real left-handers, Turns 6 and 7. Last year Aldeguer was super-slow through this section in Moto2, so he’s obviously learning a lot, especially from crew chief Frankie Carchedi, who last year worked with Márquez, the turn-left king.

“I saw Marco’s bike snaking a bit, then I attacked”

Alex Márquez had a horrible Sunday, finishing the race in tenth. His long-lap penalty – for taking out Joan Mir at Brno – dropped him deep into the jungle and he was unable to extricate himself. It’s the usual problem of modern MotoGP pack racing – your front tyre overheats and loses grip and the aero effect and aero draft make it difficult to plan and execute overtakes.

The younger Márquez remains second overall, 142 points — or 3.8 GPs — behind his brother, who once again had everything in control for his 24th consecutive victory: 12 GPs and 12 sprints.

The 32-year-old is a step or three above everyone else on the grid. On Sunday he employed his usual strategy when he doesn’t get the holeshot. He had qualified fourth — his third time off the front row this year, after he fell in Q2 — and although he was second on the second lap he couldn’t get close enough to Bezzecchi to launch an attack.

By one-third distance he had closed the gap to less than two-tenths, but his front tyre overheated in the Aprilia’s wake, so he dropped back a few tenths to do the usual: wait until the tyres dropped…

“I saw Marco’s bike snaking a bit, then I attacked,” said Márquez, who is now three victories away from his 100th GP win, across all classes.

KTM MotoGP bike of Enea Bastianini slides during 2025 Austrian Grand Prix

Bastianini (23) was getting gloriously sideways on his KTM

Tech 3 Dorna/MotoGP

This was also his first Red Bull Ring victory. He lost the Austrian GP by a fraction three years in a row – 2017, 2018 and 2019 – when he was at Honda, beaten at the last corner by Ducati riders Andrea Dovizioso and Jorge Lorenzo.

“Now I am on the red bike,” he grinned before practice was underway.

Twice MotoGP world champion Casey Stoner was at Red Bull Ring and explained the difference between Márquez and the others.

“While everyone else relies on the TC [traction control], Marc rides a little ahead of it, which gives him a bit extra as the race goes on,” said the Aussie. “It’s his sensitivity for the throttle. And his feeling for the front is phenomenal.”

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Team-mate Bagnaia had another weekend from hell – a dud tyre in the sprint and going backwards from third to eighth in the main race, again after “losing support from the rear.

“This season I don’t understand anything,” he said.

Fellow GP25 rider Fabio Di Giannantonio is also having a horrible 2025, unable to make his bike work consistently. Like Bagnaia he has had good days and bad days.

Neither rider will pinpoint the differences between the GP25 and GP24, which is undoubtedly the best bike on the grid. All Di Giannantonio would say on Sunday was, “The differences are small, the rider makes more difference.”

Inevitably, Bagnaia’s struggles – he went unbeaten at the Red Bull Ring from 2022 to 2024 – have had the conspiracy theorists hard at work.

Some say Ducati built the GP25 for Márquez, which doesn’t explain why both riders criticised the bike during pre-season testing and switched to GP24.5s or GP24.9s, or whatever you want to call them.

Others say that the Ducati factory team are favouring Márquez over Bagnaia, because the current spec obviously suits the Spaniard’s riding technique better than the Italian’s.

Mechanic works on KTM MotoGP bike in pit garage

KTM’s RC16 is a thing of beauty and getting faster too. This is one of Bastianini’s bikes

Oxley

But Márquez has also had his struggles with the bike, most obviously with his crashes during the early stages of the Spanish and British GPs, which forced him to adapt his technique and his strategy.

Like Stoner said, it’s Márquez’s ability to feel the front and rear tyres and adapt to their needs that makes him so special. Or at least, these are two of the reasons.

Perhaps those that say the GP25 suits his style and not Bagnaia’s and Di Giannantonio’s are correct.

In which case maybe it’s also correct that Ducati’s GP23 and Michelin’s 2024 rear slick suited Márquez’s style and no one else’s (last year he was the only rider to win races on a GP23).

And maybe it’s true that the Honda RC213V on Michelins suited his style and no one else’s (he won four times as many races as the other Honda riders combined and was the only Honda rider to win championships in this period).

And maybe it’s true that the RC213V on Bridgestones suited his style and no one else’s (he won four times as many races as the other Honda riders combined and was the only Honda rider to win championships in this period).

And maybe it’s true that the Suter Moto2 bike on Dunlops suited his style and no one else’s (he won three times as many races as the other Suter riders combined in his two years in the class and is the only Suter rider to have won a Moto2 championship).

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