Why 2025 offers Aprilia’s MotoGP ‘veteran’ the chance to become its new captain

There is a lot to be excited about for Aprilia next season. It has snared one of MotoGP’s current best in Jorge Martin from out of Ducati’s clutches; has signed a proven race winner in Marco Bezzecchi; and gained an exciting rookie at Trackhouse in Ai Ogura.

But this does create something of a problem. Aprilia kicked off the 2024 season in fine form, with Maverick Vinales winning the Americas Grand Prix.

Since then, however, it has clearly taken a step back compared to chief rival Ducati, with CEO Massimo Rivola admitting recently that his marque is “doing something wrong” with its RS-GP. It needs to keep developing its bike to remain competitive in 2024 and hold onto a strong foundation for next year’s challenger.

But with Vinales heading to KTM, Aleix Espargaro moving to Honda as a test rider and Miguel Oliveira set to get a factory Yamaha at Pramac, Aprilia is in between a rock and a hard place in terms of how much it actually wants its current roster to develop before taking secrets to rivals.

To boot, development for 2025 will then be picked up by a stable of riders completely new to the RS-GP. That’s not to say they won’t be capable, but with such limited testing time available to riders now, they will have little time to get to grips with the RS-GP before the new campaign begins in Thailand next February.

The one constant Aprilia will have in its line-up in 2025 will be Raul Fernandez, who recently signed a new two-year deal to remain with Trackhouse Racing beyond the end of this season.

On paper, Fernandez’s time on the Aprilia hasn’t seen the record-breaking Moto2 rookie from 2021 flourish in the way he was expected to. Scoring 51 points across the entirety of the 2023 campaign, with a best of fifth at the Valencia GP at the end of the season, Fernandez is currently 16th in the standings after 11 rounds in 2024.

However, he has almost achieved his season tally from last year with a current haul of 46 points and managed a sixth at the Catalan GP a day after qualifying on the front row and leading the sprint before crashing.

It’s worth pointing out that he hasn’t had a straightforward season either, with Fernandez beginning the campaign on the 2023 RS-GP before switching to the 2024 chassis from the British GP. But a crash on the opening lap at Silverstone meant he didn't get a full grand prix distance on the bike, and mechanical issue late on in Austria denied him the chance to score points.

However, he is just nine points behind team-mate Oliveira, having matched his best grand prix result of the campaign (though the Portuguese rider did manage a sprint podium in Germany). In terms of qualifying speed, the pair have also been pretty evenly matched. Oliveira is winning that battle 6-5, and actually that’s not fully representative because Fernandez set the fastest time of the pair in France - but was knocked out in Q1. Over the first 11 rounds, the average gap is 0.270s, though on all but three occasions have the pair been split by more than 0.2s.

Fernandez has impressed Trackhouse with his feedback and his approach to the Aprilia project this year, and team owner Justin Marks sees the 23-year-old as being vital to the Noale marque going into next year.

“There’s a lot of value in having veteran presence, especially in a sport where all the OEM’s are developing their bikes and experience really matters,” he told motogp.com. “And I think Aprilia has a challenge ahead of us for all four bikes next year, because there’s really only one rider on the Aprilia who’s got experience in Raul. But he’s getting more and more experience, and he’s building his book of knowledge in understanding the bike.

“We really like his feedback and how he’s understanding the development of the Aprilia bike. I don’t want to call him the veteran, but he is amassing a lot of experience now. So, going into next year it will be a few years with the Aprilia bike and he’ll be able to take all that experience and help develop it. And help Ogura too. So, I think it’s a good split for us right now and Raul’s working hard, so he’ll be a good anchor for the team.”

It’s clear Aprilia will look to Martin to lead its charge as a frontrunning force in MotoGP over the next few years, but all signs currently point towards Fernandez being arguably its most important asset in 2025.

Enduring a tough debut with Tech3 KTM in 2022 and failing to kick on much last year with RNF Aprilia, Fernandez has quietly impressed with Trackhouse and his new contract is well-earned.

As Aprilia loses what it has long dubbed its 'captain' in the form of Espargaro, who has proven so vital to the brand since he joined it in 2017, it could do a lot worse than pass the armband over to Fernandez if he continues to build on the solid foundations that have impressed it and Trackhouse so much…