Rolling with the punches and delivering a few: Aprilia MotoGP boss speaks

Massimo Rivola nestles into an executive chair inside the pristine Aprilia office truck at last weekend’s Aragon Grand Prix with a sigh. It might be the discomfort of the large white splint covering a broken finger on his left hand, the result of a surprising crash at Misano the previous weekend while riding at Aprilia’s ‘All-Stars’ fan day.

“Turn 3,” he grumbles while showing me CCTV footage on his phone of a nasty spiral into the gravel. The Italian’s reticence is more likely to do with another interview and another inquisition about the awkward status between his factory operation and erstwhile star racer, reigning world champion Jorge Martín.

An attempt at a concise timeline: Martín crashes at Sepang, Malaysia for the first pre-season test in February. Fractures to his right hand and left foot means he misses critical mileage on the Aprilia RS-GP. The Spaniard then falls a few weeks later while training on a Supermoto and breaks his left scaphoid and will not make his debut (having steered Ducati machinery since his entry to the premier class in 2021) until round four and the Qatar Grand Prix in mid-April. Martín races at Lusail but falls again nine laps from the flag and sustains a right lung pneumothorax and 11 rib fractures, necessitating a near-two-week hospital stint in Doha, and – at the time of the Aragon GP and the eighth GP of the season – still has not fixed a return date.

On May 9 at Le Mans (round six) Martín had travelled under the radar to France to allegedly ask Aprilia to extend a performance clause in his two-year contract allowing him to assess whether he indeed wants to make a second term on the RS-GP. Aprilia apparently refuses, and the rumour mill accelerates to sixth gear for Martín’s availability for 2026. Two weeks after Le Mans and  team-mate Marco Bezzecchi wins the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. It’s the fifth victory for Aprilia in Rivola’s tenure and since the firm grabbed their first MotoGP podium (at the same venue) in 2021. On Sunday at Silverstone Rivola addressed the media.

“Today we prove that the bike can win, but we need to do it many more times,” he said. “We cannot say more than that. The only thing that I feel for him [Martín] is that when you are a rider, when you are such a good athlete and you spend most of your time on the bed, in the hospital suffering, nobody can know how much the bad time is passing. So I think this is something that we have to respect.”

“I cannot hide it. It’s a difficult situation,” he added to a table full of voice recorders. “First of all, we need him to come back and then we think about the rebuilding the trust. But you know, when you get married, you need both parties to do their job in that respect! So we are ready to do our part.”

On Thursday, Martín posts a statement as a ‘story’ on social media. “Faced with the situation of having to make a decision on a date that is established by contract, I have decided to exercise my right to release myself for the 2026 season. I have always done so respectfully, clearly and with the sole intention of taking control of my future as a professional athlete.”

Martín travels to Misano for the All-Stars day hours later but conjecture continues to swirl in Aragon. Re-emerging racing power, Honda, seems favourites to pluck the 27-year-old away for 2026 and beyond. The defection would be a major blow to Aprilia and Rivola for the large investment made in the champion’s services and the increased credibility that came with the signature made in June 2024.

Rivola has been fielding a barrage of enquires for updates. But contract legalities and the stasis with Martín’s health means the high-profile wrangle is currently at a stalemate. The Aprilia CEO finds himself in a delicate bind but it’s not an insurmountable episode considering his vast scope of experience. Stints with Minardi then Toro Rosso in Formula 1 management roles then led to a decade with Ferrari as sports director and finally heading the Scuderia’s Academy programme.

In 2019 a fondness for motorcycles and the chance to front Aprilia saw the transition to two wheels. Aprilia, one of four brands owned by the Piaggio Group, based in Noale, just west of Venice had been stumbling in MotoGP after its entry in 2015 with the RS-GP.

Rivola wanted impact. “I arrived here, and I saw everybody a bit down,” he recalls. “In my first race I held a protest against Ducati and managed to bring onboard almost all the other manufacturers [at the 2019 Qatar GP and over Ducati’s controversial rear tyre ‘scoop’]. Perhaps some in MotoGP thought ‘ah, the phenomeno from Formula 1 wants to show up…’ but for me it was an important message to make inside the company.

“When I came back to the office after that race – I usually have meetings with everybody after a GP – I asked to first show the start of the movie Rocky. It is the segment where he is being hit by Apollo Creed and at one point he makes a super-punch to Apollo with his left hand and he goes down. I said: ‘Please stop the video. Guys, we are Rocky Balboa. So far, we have had a lot of punches. Personally, I am not here to get punched, and we have given one now to the system. I want to tell you I am here to punch. Let’s wake up because now we have a problem…Apollo will wake up.’ If someone didn’t want to fight then I pointed to the door. They were free to leave. That was my start.”

He smiles at the memory. Aprilia improved. The podiums came and then Rivola established an in-house factory team, taking the squad away from the control of the Gresini outfit. Aprilia started winning. 2025 and the Martín-era should have been their championship bid. The upward scale has come in part thanks to Rivola’s leadership and ability to connect with the many groups involved in the company as well as the sport. Those who watched the now defunct MotoGP Unlimited Amazon Prime series will recall the huge effort made to appease former rider Maverick Viñales in 2021-2022.

“Super-interesting,” is how Rivola describes the aspect of his role that sees him glide between these parties. “A lot of time I was sporting director, so I was dealing with regulations, race control, director and stewards. Sometimes you need to be a lawyer: quite formal but try to get the rationale behind the rules and ask and explain.”

“Then going to a company – and this is the first time that I lead a company – you need to understand the culture and where they are coming from,” he adds. “The history and the titles. The few years before I came, Aprilia were always in the bottom position so then you also have [to factor] the motivation of the people. You have to read the global picture and find what you think are the critical elements to wake-up attention.”

Dealing with athletes is the hardest and most fascinating realm of his job. He gives a wry look when asked about it, briefly acknowledging the elephant quietly sitting in the corner. “Riders and drivers are, for sure, the most interesting because they are super-skilled and their way to think is super-fast. Some of them can teach you a lot,” he reveals.

“You start to put yourself in their shoes and think ‘what is he going to ask me? If I say this, what will he reply?’ If you try to anticipate then you grasp it quickly. The best was Fernando Alonso. The speed of the way he thinks…most of the time I was behind him! You’ll have a situation A, B, C, D, E and F and think ‘if he takes this, then we go in that direction and there are only three scenarios left…’ You need to be quite reactive. Sebastian [Vettel] was also quite smart. There was no bullshit, otherwise he would discover. Riders compared to drivers? They come back to the garage with a completely different adrenaline. The driver stays in the car, speaks on the radio and is calm. On the bike, they jump off and immediately start shouting! More or less!”

So, contracts and demands become like a chess match? “I don’t play chess,” he admits. “I sort-of know the rules but I think the answer is ‘yes’. It is all about the equilibrium. If you know the person, you know the athlete, the family, the girlfriend, whatever, then you start putting yourself in his mind, and if you want to win the chess game then you need the connection. One of the most important things is that the driver or the rider recognises that you represent a company. Here is easier because I am the CEO.

“In Ferrari I was the sporting director and very young in that role. I was dealing with drivers that were gaining millions and millions and they could have told me to ‘f**k off’ but as long as they recognise the role that you have in the company then that is the base. Then to gain the respect you have to play the very difficult line of being a friend or someone that can kick his ass. It’s the most interesting thing and the one I like the most.”

“We can joke a lot, but we also speak seriously about everything,” said Bezzecchi (who had ridden two seasons with Ducati) later when quizzed about Rivola’s communication. “He’s really passionate, so he really knows a lot about motorbikes, he also rides. Sometimes, because of this, he can really understand very well what I say, my comments about the bike. Of course it’s different between the Ducati staff, but I don’t want to say it’s better or worse, it’s just different.”

By now Rivola has at least two calls. He ignores both but he then gets a visit from Race Manager Paolo Bonora asking if he will approve an email. We pause momentarily as he files through his phone, quickly scans a text and replies. We continue, and I’m reminded of the demands on his time. It’s at this point that Massimo says: “It is good to speak about something very different from standard interviews…I like that.” Therefore, we swiftly move onto the other big subject in MotoGP and the looming, protracted arrival of Liberty Media as majority owners of current series incumbents Dorna Sports. MotoGP could start to morph as early as this autumn if the 4.2-billion-dollar acquisition gets the European Commission stamp of approval in July.

Rivola was part of the F1 paddock when Liberty started their transformation over there. “The first feeling was – I would not say personal – but in the paddock we knew something was changing because getting a pass in the past was impossible; Liberty started to open the gate,” he reveals. “It is still limited however the approach was more marketing orientated rather than just TV orientated. There was a feeling that more and more people were attending in the grandstands while a few years before this had been an issue because the tickets were too expensive and so on. Now I see the grandstands are full everywhere and, where they are more exclusive and expensive, the more they sell! It’s something interesting…I don’t think it will be a copy-paste here because we have a different nature but I still think we will elevate the standard.

“You see more and more families and kids and young people,” he says of F1 now. “That’s the big difference and one of the keys to the success. Netflix, social media, whatever: they made the right marketing move.”

Rivola supports MotoGP’s ongoing testing and experimentation for radio technology that will firstly serve a safety purpose but will then eventually feed into the TV production; it’s a small example of broadening the entertainment potential. “The huge advantage is that we have a show on track that F1 does not have,” he opines. “People go to F1 to attend the event, not only to watch the race. Here you go to see the race. I think we have the opportunity to create events.”

He says the shallower technical diversity compared to F1 (only five brands supplying the 11 MotoGP teams) is both a limitation as well as a strong asset for parity. The Ducati era of three consecutive riders’ championships could be over as soon as 2027 when MotoGP pivots to a new technical rulebook with 850cc engines, Pirelli tyres and downgraded aerodynamic and a ban on ride height devices. But the series also needs to change in another way: perception. The 2024 rebranding exercise was the clearest example of this modernisation and urge to appeal to more eyeballs. “One of the secrets will be to use the riders properly and to make them superstars…to use this ‘tool’ properly,” he states, pointing at my iPhone.

MotoGP also needs to twist its essence. Something that could make hardcore fans recoil but would be an inevitable evolution in the hands of new promoters; Dorna have held the reins since 1992.

“The governance should be a bit different because at the moment in F1 you have an agreement with all of them [the stakeholders] and they all share,” Rivola explains. “They all build the show, and they share the target and the revenues. Yes, you can then discuss about the percentages…but it is not just about ‘we go racing and we hope to win the race…’. It is much more. They use F1 as a tool to do business. This is more natural in the automotive industry. In the two-wheel world this is more difficult because, normally, you don’t need the bike to move. Maybe one out of a thousand people really need a bike. You might buy a scooter for necessity but, generally, the bike is something you buy for passion and therefore the culture is different.

“Something that made me crazy when I was following the academy and seeing eight-nine-year-old kids in karting was how much it took for them to make a season: it was crazy money. Everything has a zero behind it compared to our numbers. One thing that will happen sooner or later is that MotoGP will become more aspirational. I don’t mean just visibility. For example, something stupid: space. Here [in Moorland Aragon] we have good garages but in some places we have no space to work and it’s difficult to create a nice place for your guests.

“F1 is a different world but if we increase the perception – which is one of the key elements of the business and the MotoGP brand – then it is likely that we will attract big sponsors,” he concludes. “Once we have that then we are forced to elevate the level. That is one of the key points for the future of MotoGP.”

Rivola’s phone buzzes again. We’re less than an hour from Q1/Q2. Bezzecchi will crash and bounce from being grand prix winner in Silverstone to the back of the Aragon grid. The Italian would recover to eighth in the race on Sunday but Aprilia and Rivola are still bobbing in defence looking to strike where they can.

Adam Wheeler will be contributing regularly to Motor Sport alongside Mat Oxley who will continue to write each week — on Mondays after MotoGP rounds and Wednesdays every other week.