Born on November 12, 1998 in Rimini, Marco Bezzecchi is today one of the leading figures in MotoGP. Currently riding for Aprilia, he has established himself over the seasons as a complete talent, capable of winning, demonstrating his speed over a single lap, and raising his level in major races, to the point of becoming a title contender in 2026.
Having grown up surrounded by motorcycles, Bezzecchi discovered racing in the Italian categories before quickly making a name for himself on the international stage. In 2015, he won the Italian Moto3 championship and made his debut in the FIM CEV Moto3 Junior World Championship. From this early stage, he showed real potential, even if his results took time to translate into significant achievements. In fact, he has yet to secure any major results in the class.
Marco Bezzecchi, from Moto3 to Moto2
This didn't stop him from making his Moto3 World Championship debut the same year with wildcard appearances. After two races in 2015 and two in 2016, he fully joined the category in 2017 with CIP. His first full season was low-key – although highlighted by a podium finish in Japan – but it allowed him to learn. In 2018, the breakthrough came: with Prüstel GP, Bezzecchi won three Grands Prix, reached the podium nine times, and finished third in the World Championship behind… Fabio Di Giannantonio and Jorge Martín. He then firmly established himself among the most promising riders of his generation.
His rise to prominence continued in Moto2. After a difficult first year with KTM Tech3 in 2019, where he only finished in the points four times, he bounced back by joining the VR46 team in 2020. His teammates included Luca Marini and then Celestino Vietti. On the Kalex chassis, he built a solid record, regularly finishing at the front of the pack. In 2020, he secured his first podium finish in the class at Jerez (Andalusian GP), before claiming his first victory in Austria (Styrian GP). Finishing fourth in the championship, he was 21 points behind champion Enea Bastianini, and twelve behind his teammate, who finished second that season.
In 2021, he did even better, finishing third in the Moto2 championship after an even more consistent season – twelve top-five finishes in eighteen races, including seven podiums – but still far from enough to challenge the dominance of the KTM Ajo bikes of Raul Fernandez and Remy Gardner, the latter ultimately becoming champion. His performance was nevertheless sufficient to secure his move to MotoGP with the VR46 team.
A promising start in MotoGP
His debut in the premier class was immediately noteworthy. In 2022, riding the Ducati for the Mooney VR46 Racing Team, he secured his first MotoGP podium in Assen, Netherlands, followed by his first pole position in Thailand. The following year, he fully confirmed his status as a top rider: three victories, including his first wins in Argentina, France, and India, and a third-place finish in the championship, behind Jorge Martín and Pecco Bagnaia. Bezzecchi established himself as one of the revelations of the season.
After a quieter 2024 season, he took on a new challenge. In 2025, he joined Aprilia Racing as a factory rider and stepped up his game. After a difficult start to the season on the RS-GP, which can be attributed to a necessary adjustment period to his new bike, he returned to the forefront with a victory at the British Grand Prix. He then delivered a string of high-level performances. Bezzecchi also shone in qualifying, securing several pole positions on circuits not necessarily suited to the Aprilia. He was one of the few riders able to challenge Marc Márquez at the end of the season, without, however, managing to beat the nine-time world champion outright. During the Indonesian Grand Prix, a collision between the two during the Sprint forced Márquez to withdraw for the rest of the season. Bezzecchi took advantage of this to win the last two races of the season, leading every lap.
At the start of 2026, Bezzecchi continued his impressive run. From the Thai Grand Prix onward, he dominated, setting the fastest time in qualifying, securing pole position, and then winning the race. The only setback of his weekend was a crash in the Sprint class, which prevented him from defending his championship lead after the first round of the year. In Brazil and the United States – despite another crash in the Sprint class – he cemented his dominance, once again leading every lap of these races, which led him to break the MotoGP record for consecutive laps in first place with 121 laps in a row.
Establishing himself as the strongest rider at the start of the championship, his contract with Aprilia has been extended until the end of the 2028 season, a sign of the manufacturer's complete confidence in its rider. Despite a few mistakes since his victory at Mugello, and an injury sustained at the Sachsenring after a crash in qualifying, his start to the season places him among the contenders for the 2026 world championship title, an opportunity that could be the only one of his career, and one he certainly cannot afford to miss.
The following…
In 2027, Marco Bezzecchi will continue his journey with Aprilia, now one of the key figures in the Italian brand's project. He will form a top-level duo with Pecco Bagnaia, in a team that could well aim very high in the new technological era. However, they must be careful not to make any more unnecessary mistakes, otherwise his teammate – who is recovering after a disastrous season at Ducati, where he suffered in comparison to a Marc Marquez at his best – could quickly overshadow him.