MotoGP champion Martin claims Aprilia ‘feels like home’ despite contractual saga

Jorge Martin has said Aprilia is starting to “feel like home” after making his MotoGP return with the team following a lengthy injury spell ahead of this weekend’s Czech Grand Prix.

Martin started the race in 12th before eventually finishing seventh, taking his first points with the Italian manufacturer after joining at the start of the year. 

It was also only Martin’s second grand prix start of the 2025 season alongside Qatar, round four, where he crashed and suffered several broken ribs and a pneumothorax as a result. That added to a pre-season testing crash in Thailand which ruled him out of the first few rounds.

During his spell on the sideline, Martin also became involved in a contractual saga with Aprilia after stating his intentions to leave at the end of this season.

He planned to trigger a contractual clause which allowed him to depart if he was not in title contention by round six at Le Mans, but his injury record made that complicated. In the end, it was recently confirmed that Martin now intends to remain with Aprilia next year.

“Happy for Aprilia,” said the reigning world champion at Brno. “I think it’s difficult to believe, but now it starts to feel like home.

“I think maybe Friday was a bit more tense, then Saturday better, today a bit better. So, for sure, now it’s like we need to build the confidence together. I know they believe in me a lot, and I believe in them, in the project now.”

“I’m grateful for being here today, to finish the race,” he added, having also finished 11th in Saturday’s Czech GP sprint.

“It was a really tense weekend, because it was unpredictable, all the feelings. Before the race I was crying a lot with my family in the motorhome, when I put on the leather suit, because what I’d been through was tough.

“But I think it was good to relieve those emotions and then get focused on the race.”

The media then put Martin’s “feel like home” comment to Aprilia boss Massimo Rivola, who has been left buoyed by Martin’s turnaround. 

“We all need to understand what a champion, an athlete, a human being – spending so many months injured, that has no chance to see the light at the end of the tunnel – can have in his mind,” said Rivola.

Massimo Rivola, Team principal Aprilia Racing

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz

“Even more someone like Jorge who is a super active person. I knew that it was right to stay on our position, and I knew it was good for Jorge too.

“I’m happy to hear what he said, and happy to see him smiling, happy to see him quite confident on the bike already.

“The first day was a bit cold in a way, but it’s like that. It’s something that I knew was going to happen.

“So having watched him, seen him smiling, getting confidence, seeing people genuinely hug him. I think he will appreciate that more and more.”