Jorge Martin and Marco Bezzecchi were once Moto3 rivals, but have they put their bitter rivalry behind them?
Aprilia Racing's 2025 MotoGP rider lineup of Jorge Martin and Marco Bezzecchi have history. The two riders have been rivals for all of their Grand Prix careers from Moto3 all the way up to MotoGP.
A few years ago it would have been a disaster to have the duo sharing a garage. But Aprilia have taken the risk of pairing the former Championship rivals together.
At the Aprilia Racing launch event in Milan Sky Sport MotoGP commentator, Guido Meda, asked Bezzecchi and Martin how their relationship is now they are teammates.
"It is good to have the World Champion by my side, I can learn a lot from him," Bezzecchi stated.
"Now we have a good relationship, of course, when we were younger our relationship was a bit more difficult. But this is normal as we were younger and less mature.
"I think now we have grown up a lot, for me he [Martin] is a big reference. Last year he did something that was unbelievable. To have the possibility to share the box with him and learn from him is a big honour for me. I will try my best to be close to him and sometimes or most of the time try to beat him."
Martin echoed Bezzecchi's comments and believes that their former rivalry will not impact their time as teammates at Aprilia Racing.
"For me I am happy to have Marco [Bezzecchi]," Martin explained.
"As he says we battled for the 2018 Championship in Moto3, we were fighting almost until the last race. For sure at that point and the years after those races it [Martin and Bezzecchi's relationship] was not fantastic, we struggled a bit.
"But now I think that we are good. For Aprilia and for the team it is really important that both of us work together and try to grow up with the team and with the bike. I hope for the best for Marco because it will mean better for me, so let's see, let's fight together and then we will see what happens."