Aprilia faces its biggest challenge right now – and Marquez is just one part of it

Riders taking each other out. Riders shoving team managers. Team bosses wagging their fingers at other team bosses. Riders slapping marshals. Relationships cooling. Points tallies stalling.

With everything that has gone on over the last four race weekends, Aprilia looks to be imploding. Despite the happy interlude that was dominating its home race in Italy, 'crisis' does not seem to be too strong a word for its current situation. 

At the start of the season, Aprilia and Marco Bezzecchi appeared to be running away with this year's world championship. And when Jorge Martin led a podium lockout in France, with Marc Marquez on the surgeon's table, it looked like the biggest issue the factory would face was keeping its riders from running into each other.

But that exact problem has reared its head, sooner than even the biggest pessimists among Aprilia's fans could have predicted. It began a week after Le Mans, when satellite Trackhouse rider Raul Fernandez clattered into Martin. A Catalan catalyst for two heated confrontations: Martin versus Paolo Bonora, and Massimo Rivola versus Davide Brivio. 

Remember that back story to Rivola v Brivio. It was already known at that point that Trackhouse boss Brivio was jumping ship to Honda for 2027, a move that does not appear to have gone down well at Aprilia. When Francesco Guidotti was announced as Trackhouse team manager with immediate effect at Brno last weekend, it was noticeable that Brivio did not feature in the press release at all.

The all-Aprilia party at Mugello suggested that the ship had been steadied after what was on many levels an outlier weekend at Barcelona. Alas! Worse was to come as the crew began acting up in Hungary and Czechia. 

Martin triggered the Turn 1 pile-up, got a scolding from his team boss and a double long lap penalty as punishment

Photo by: Ferenc Isza / AFP via Getty Images

Balaton saw an incident with far greater repercussions than that in Barcelona, as Martin destroyed both Bezzecchi's and Fernandez's races at the first corner. Bezzecchi was hurt, although not seriously, while Rivola made no attempt to hide his displeasure at Martin's role in the costly accident. 

At least there weren't any physical confrontations in Hungary... but that changed at Brno. Bezzecchi seemingly came into the weekend in a bit of a mood. Firstly, he was still in pain from the Balaton crash. Then, when asked about the atmosphere in the garage, his one-word shutdown of the question was a strong indicator that he was still hacked off with Martin.

When Bezzecchi lost it on the penultimate lap of the Czech sprint, it was the return of a problem he thought he had solved. He'd thrown it up the road in three of the early-season sprints, but that had been a while ago. Now, on top of everything else, the Saturday crash habit was back. And it was an unfortunate marshal who bore the brunt of that accumulated frustration.

Having to sit in the naughty chair on Sunday meant zero points for Bezzecchi. And there weren't many for Martin either, as he served double long lap penance for his Hungarian error. Meanwhile, Marquez made merry, closing the deficit to Bezzecchi from 72 to 40 points over the weekend.

If Aprilia ends up winning titles this season, it will be because it did something right immediately following the Czech Grand Prix. This is the moment

The self-destructions over the Hungarian and Czech outings, along with Marquez returning to his familiar form, have left Aprilia's comfortable championship runaway a mere dream. And that's just the points situation. If working relationships have been fracturing, that could prove far more serious for a title challenge. 

The good news for Aprilia? It still leads all three championships. It is still first and second in the riders' battle, with Bezzecchi and Martin showing heading the pack. It still has the best bike on the grid, even if that may now be an honour shared with the Ducati GP26. And, in theory at least, this weekend's Dutch Grand Prix is a fresh start. 

But it's clear that if Aprilia ends up winning titles this season, it will be because it did something right immediately following the Czech Grand Prix. This is the moment. Either things can unravel completely, or something is done to stop the bleeding. If there are cool heads in the house at Noale, they will know that nobody can win the championship at this stage with the halfway point still two rounds away. But they can definitely play themselves out of it if they keep on blundering.

Bezzecchi and Aprilia have seen their respective championship leads slashed but still hold a vital advantage

Can Aprilia get back on course?

If Aprilia can recover from the shock of losing such a firm grip on the title race, and handle the discomfort that is Marquez eating away at one's lead, then a title victory would be all the sweeter. It will be a far better story than running away with it, actually. 

But is there any evidence that it can write that story? This is an unusual situation in that the crisis seems more of a human one than a technical one. Aprilia losing points in such dramatic fashion is primarily down to people boiling over and human error rather than mechanical. 

After Barcelona, there was (possibly over-hyped) crunch talks between all the key players across the factory and Trackhouse teams. And when Mugello went so well, early indications were that this had worked. Everybody was pulling together again; the riders behaved and brought home their points. But what happened over the next two weekends surely calls for another intervention. 

All eyes are on Rivola, whose job it will be to man-manage the situation into something that restarts the points-scoring machine in time for Assen. He has done some good work already in his time, and got a lot of the credit for navigating last year's Martin contractual battle whilst keeping relationships intact. Until recently, that happy-family vibe looked unshakeable. Now, Rivola may have an even bigger challenge on his hands.

On the track, Marquez is the clear and present danger. His factory Ducati team has experience of winning multiple MotoGP titles, while Aprilia has only just got used to winning races regularly. It's up to Rivola to repel any sense of doom within the ranks. He needs to remind all concerned that Aprilia has won a multitude of world title battles in its time - just not in the premier category. 

Managing the riders is the most delicate and intriguing challenge for the team's leadership. Right now, Bezzecchi does not look to have the confidence of a world champion in the making. He may be leading, but his antics in the gravel trap point to a man feeling the pressure more than he lets on. Then there is Martin. If he can't consistently ride like the champion he is, then at least he has to stay out of the way and bring home points.

Rivola must pull all of Aprilia together to stabilise its season

Photo by: Aprilia Racing

How Rivola handles his riders will be a most intriguing chapter in his autobiography - and could be decisive in where the titles end up this season. 

The factory's relationship with Trackhouse is also critical. It's a stretch to think Ai Ogura and Fernandez can replace the works boys as title challengers, but both are vital in terms of taking points off rivals. As Ogura showed at Brno, they can also keep up Aprilia spirits when things go wrong for the factory, showing that there is nothing wrong with the bike. Their data is crucial to the overall effort too.

With that in mind, Aprilia fans can only hope that Guidotti's arrival at Trackhouse helps smooth over any bumps caused by Brivio's departure plans. 

After the break, Marquez reckons he'll really be in "attack mode"

The technical side really does seem quite simple compared to the mental side. Teams up and down the grid are pouring resources into 2027. The Brno test on Monday was all about next year's machines, not this year's. Not a huge amount is expected to change when it comes to the relative performance of the bikes as this season unfolds.  That said, Aprilia knows this is its best shot at breaking its MotoGP title duck. It may be wise to put everything it can into this year, even if there's a knock-on effect for 2027.

But first things first: Bezzecchi and Martin both need to score points in both races at Assen. No nonsense, no excuses. The same goes for the German Grand Prix that follows. While it is far too early for Aprilia to go into lead-preservation mode for the rest of the season, the emphasis for the next couple of rounds does need to go in that direction. It's psychologically important that at least one of the riders is still leading come the summer break. And that should be easily done provided there is no repeat of the central European implosions.

After the break, Marquez reckons he'll really be in "attack mode". A scary prospect indeed, but at least there's time for Aprilia to calm down and prepare for the onslaught. What it can't afford is more disasters in the short term. Because whipping up a couple more of those now will probably make the campaign impossible to salvage.

Aprilia will know Marquez will only get stronger as the year progresses, so need to step up in preparation for the title fight

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images