The Argentine Grand Prix turned into a nightmare for Aprilia. While Ducati crushed everything with a red top five featuring Marc Marquez, his brother Alex, Morbidelli, Pecco Bagnaia, and Di Giannantonio, both Aprilia teams—factory and TrackHouse—left Termas de Río Hondo in ruins. Jorge Martin withdrew (injured), Lorenzo Savadori (out), Marco Bezzecchi (crash), Ai Ogura (disqualified), and Raul Fernandez (penalized): a total disaster. Aprilia Racing boss Massimo Rivola grimaces, but looks for the light in this fiasco.
The 2025 Argentine Grand Prix was a disaster for the teams Aprilia, a series of incidents that hit their hopes of success. Here is a summary of the key events and the impact of these setbacks.
Lorenzo Savadori : Jorge Martin's test driver and replacement was involved in an incident early in the weekend. He suffered a shoulder injury following a near highside. After an attempt to resume the race, he had to retire prematurely. His place remained empty during Sunday's race, the message fromAprilia being to protect Savadori for the next important races. This left the team with a reduced squad and put more pressure on the other drivers.
Marco Bezzecchi : despite his sixth place in the Sprint, the Italian suffered a fall at the first corner during Sunday's Grand Prix after hitting the rear wheel of fabio quartararoFortunately, he did not suffer any serious injuries, but this crash reduced his chances of shining in this race, making his weekend more complicated. After showing good pace in preseason and in Buriram, this incident was a big disappointment for Aprilia.
Ai Ogura was one of the few pilots Aprilia to show potential in this complicated weekend. Although his start to the race in Argentina was difficult (starting from 15th place), he made an impressive comeback to finish eighth in Sunday's race, overtaking riders like Peter AcostaHowever, the situation took a dramatic turn after the race, with his disqualification for using unapproved electronics. Although this was apparently unintentional, the disqualification meant zero points for him, highlighting another significant technical error for the marque.
Raul fernandez, who can now be considered the RS-GP veteran, did not live up to expectations. Despite showing some motivation at the start of the season, he was unable to impose himself against his teammate OguraIn Argentina he had a disappointing performance, failing to qualify properly and losing positions in the standings. His race was marred by a 'long lap' penalty after crashing into Enea BastianiniHe finished outside the points, a performance well below expectations for such an experienced driver.
Aprilia: a team in search of solutions
The multiple errors of Noale's men, culminating in the disqualification ofOgura, question the preparation of the motorcycle and the management of the electronics. The past and repeated incidents which have struck Aleix Espargaro et Maverick Vinales in their time do not seem to have been metabolized in Aprilia. The brand, despite strong potential, seems to lack reliability on several fronts, thus seriously hampering collective performance.
The disaster in Termas highlights a lack of preparation and coordination between pilots and technical teams. The case of Savadori, with his injury and absence, added additional pressure. In addition, talent management in the team seems to be lacking: althoughOgura showed great potential, his disqualification eliminated any chance of scoring valuable points, which could have improved the position ofAprilia in the championship.
Despite this series of setbacks, Aprilia maintains a respectable position as third manufacturer in the ranking, tied with KTM, but well and truly behind Honda, in fact the first challenger of Ducati before the deadline at AustinHowever, these incidents have shown that the Italian manufacturer is not yet stable enough to compete with the other giants of the field. It must imperatively resolve their technical problems and increase their internal cohesion to hope to progress.
Le Argentine Grand Prix was a particularly difficult weekend for Aprilia, where bad luck, technical errors and team management combined to paint a very bleak picture. However, despite all this, the director ofaprilia-racing, Massimo rivola, was able to find a glimmer of hope by highlighting the good performance of the bike, notably that of Bezzecchi before his incident, and the constancy ofOgura as a promising rookie.
To remain competitive in MotoGP, Aprilia will have to resolve its technical issues and offer its drivers a more stable and reliable environment for future races, starting with a Grand Prix of the Americas which will take place next weekend and where Casa Particular in Viñales had offered a real festival, dominating the Texan panhandle head and shoulders.
