It was in 1986 that Jorge Martinez “Aspar” won his first world title on an 80 cc Derbi. Three others would follow, in 3 and 87 on an 88 Derbi, then in 80 on a 89 from the same manufacturer. With 125 victories, 37 podiums and 61 pole positions as a driver, he ended his career in 42 after a final triumph at the Autodromo Oscar Galvez during the Argentine GP.
He had meanwhile created his own team in 1992, and Team Aspar's first major success came in 2002, when Fonsi Nieto finished second in the 250cc World Championship. The year 3 was another memorable season in the intermediate category, with Sebastián Porto also finishing second in the championship. The first world title was obtained thanks to Alvaro Bautista in 125 in 2006. Three other crowns were to follow, still in 125, with Gábor Talmácsi (2007), Julian Simon (2009) and Nicolás Terol (2011).
The team debuted in MotoGP in 2010 with a Ducati Desmosedici GP10 for Hector Barbera within the Páginas Amarillas Aspar Racing Team. She ended her adventure in large displacement in 2018 with a Ducati Desmosedici GP17 for Alvaro Bautista and a GP16 for Karel Abraham, within the Ángel Nieto Team. Unfortunately, the results in this category were inversely proportional to the budget required, and Aspar retreated to more affordable categories. With success, since he hopes to be competitive to claim titles in five categories this year: Moto2, Moto3, MotoE, Moto3 Junior World Championship and European Talent Cup.
" We are growing, explains Martinez, we have many drivers, but the goal is the same in all categories: to fight for the title. I think we can do it, because this year we made a jump in quality. »
“The goal of the Aspar team in the European Talent Cup with Iván Ortolá and David Alonso is to win the championship, because last year they were already vice-champions and fifth in their first season in the category. »
“And in the Moto3 Junior World Championship we have three great riders: one of them, Daniel Holgado, has more experience; the other two are younger, as is the case of Ondrej Vostatek and Izan Guevara, who arrives as Champion of the European Talent Cup. »
“Holgado had some great races last season and has already achieved a few podiums. We will give all three of them the best possible equipment to be able to aim for the top places, as well as the advice and experience of our team, led by Nico Terol. »
“In the Moto3 World Championship, we finished the year in good form with Albert Arenas, with a victory and two more podiums in the latter part of the season, and the goal is to take a step forward with KTM and aim for the Moto3 title. »
“His new teammate, Stefano Nepa, is a promising driver who already has experience from the last two seasons, but he is still young. We will help him grow so that he can regularly enter the top 10 and, little by little, fight for the top 5 or the podium. »
“In Moto2, we took a big leap forward with the arrival of Hafiz Syahrin and D'Aron Canet and with the chassis change for Speed Up. I hope that the new year will also bring us a lot of joy in this category, like in MotoE, where we already know more about the bike. »
“Within the Openbank Aspar Team, we will have María Herrera, who had some very good races in 2019, when she finished very close to the podium in Italy, and we will soon announce her teammate, who will be a young driver coming from the big categories. »
“With them we are sure we can achieve great results. Although it is still early as we have not yet started pre-season testing, I think we have made a big leap forward in all categories. We are very excited. »
“On a more personal level, I have two different lives: that of racing, which is what I love the most, but there is also the one that goes from October to March, which is just as necessary. »
“At this stage, you work day and night, looking for partners who allow you to respect budgets and have the best technical and material means to be able to give the best of ourselves at the start of the first Grand Prix. This is a step that I have done all my life, even when I was a pilot, and it is very necessary because without the support of our partners we would not be able to race. This is why I would like to thank all those who share this adventure with us – who fortunately are numerous – for the trust they place in us. »
“We are now in the process of incorporating other partners, and the most recent is Solunion, a multinational which has great experience in the field of credit insurance and suretyship and which has strong partners. We are well on our way to repaying them for all the support they have given us and we hope we can grow together. We are happy and satisfied to share this challenge with them. »
Photos © Team Aspar, motogp.com / Dorna
