Jakarta –
The irony is the Aprilia factory team. Despite appearing consistently in MotoGP 2025 and reaching third place in the final standings, Aprilia did not get a main sponsor to participate in the MotoGP 2026 racing competition. What is the reason?
Aprilia CEO Massimo Rivola admitted that he was a bit disappointed that Aprilia could not secure the top main sponsor for the 2026 MotoGP season. Even though their team had just recorded the best season in its history.
The Italian brand achieved an important milestone in MotoGP 2025. Aprilia won four grand prix wins for its two teams, then finished as runner-up in the constructors’ standings for the first time. This achievement was even more complete with the success of breaking into the top three of the drivers’ championship standings through Marco Bezzecchi, who appeared impressive in the second half of the season and often posed a threat to defending champion Marc Marquez.
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With this performance, Aprilia should be seen as one of the main forces ahead of the 2026 season, which is also the final year of 1,000 cc engine regulations. However, the irony occurred, because they had to challenge Ducati’s dominance again without the main sponsor on the RS-GP motorbike.
On the MotoGP grid, Aprilia is now the only factory team without a main partner. Ducati is supported by Lenovo, KTM with Red Bull, Yamaha with Monster Energy, then Honda has partnered with Castrol after the end of a long collaboration with Repsol. Even so, Aprilia still has full support from its parent company, the Piaggio Group.
At the team launch event in Milan, Rivola did not hide his disappointment. “Honestly, I don’t want to say surprised, but I’m a little disappointed, because we didn’t get a main sponsor,” he was quoted as saying Crash.
In terms of funding, currently Aprilia is still fully supported by their holding company, the Piaggio Group. But Rivola said he was eager to ‘present’ major sponsorship to their parent company as proof that they were successful in MotoGP.
“Fortunately, we have the Piaggio Group to save us. But I would love to one day call (the boss) and tell him that we found 10 million for the (MotoGP) budget,” he said.
Rivola also highlighted MotoGP’s big challenges from a commercial perspective when compared to Formula 1. According to him, the MotoGP brand as a whole still needs to be improved to make it more attractive to global investors. He believes that racers must maximize their role as ambassadors to promote MotoGP as the best two-wheeled racing spectacle in the world.
(take/rgr)
