In 2025, Aprilia is experiencing an unexpected MotoGP season: 2024 champion Jorge Martin is out due to injury, Marco Bezzecchi is struggling to adapt, but rookie and 2 Moto2024 champion Ai Ogura is emerging as Noale's top rider. With 32 points (10th), Ogura is ahead of his RS-GP colleagues Bezzecchi (12th, 23 points), and Raul Fernandez after Le Mans. The rumor of Martin's early departure to Honda in 2026 highlights Ogura's solidity. Could he already be considered as a recourse to the Martinator?
At the start of the 2025 season, no one—literally no one—would have bet that after six Grands Prix, the best driver Aprilia would not be called George Martin, neither Marco Bezzecchi, nor even Raul fernandez… But Ai Ogura, a shy, discreet rookie, almost too humble for the circus that is MotoGP.
And yet, the reality is there: the Japanese are the ones who are saving the furniture of an official structure in crisis of results and, now, of contractual stability.
Obviously, it is necessary to contextualize. George Martin is literally out of the game - repeatedly injured, he has not been able to perform at 100% in a single session. Marco Bezzecchi, for his part, seems completely disoriented on an RS-GP which he dominates neither in pace nor in confidence. Raul fernandez ? Invisible.
result: Ogura is like the last soldier standing at home Aprilia, even though he rides a satellite motorcycle, in a team (TrackHouse) still in the learning phase. The irony is biting: Aprilia, who went to great lengths to sign the MotoGP world champion, finds himself dependent on a 24-year-old rookie.
When the joker Ai Ogura becomes a trump card
Ai Ogura isn't flamboyant. He doesn't make shocking statements. He doesn't break the internet. But he's moving forward, step by step, as he always has. And that's no accident. In Moto3, in Moto2, and now in MotoGP, its progression curve is linear, but ascending. It does not flare up. It builds.
And this type of profile, in a period as uncertain as the one we are going throughAprilia traverse, could well be the all-risk insurance that no one had considered.
The question becomes inevitable: Aprilia Should she bet on Ogura for the future? When we see that the relationship with George Martin could end up in court and that Bezzecchi can't get his project off the ground, the choice no longer seems so far-fetched.
Certainly, Ogura won't sell pallets of helmets in Europe or cause an audience explosion on TikTok. But he's a hard worker. A real one. A long-distance driver. And perhaps what Aprilia needs after so many media stunts that have so far produced nothing but frustration.
Ogura is the "plan B" that is becoming plan A by force of circumstances - and especially by his performances. If Aprilia has the lucidity to see beyond the glamour and past titles, it could well hold in its hands a future pillar, discreet but solid, capable of putting the RS-GP back on the right track.
Sometimes great revolutions begin in silence. And Ai Ogura, he makes noise without making any.
