Aprilia's stance on team orders in MotoGP 2026 title fight
Aprilia hints it will consider team orders in the MotoGP 2026 title race in the final two rounds of the campaign - but for now its riders remain "completely free" to race each other.
Seven-time champion Marc Marquez stands between Aprilia and a first-ever MotoGP riders' title, trailing its points leader Jorge Martin by just two points coming out of the Indonesian Grand Prix.
Despite winning at Mandalika, Martin's team-mate Marco Bezzecchi is 46 points down on Martin.
A total of either 185 points or 148 points is still available, depending on whether the Qatar race goes ahead.
MotoGP manufacturers have always displayed a certain reticence to deploy team orders, and the same has been true for Aprilia. Further complicating the situation is that main championship hope Martin is on an expiring deal and will join Yamaha in 2027, while Bezzecchi is under contract for 2027-28.
"I mean, we said it since the beginning, that while the mathematics are open, it's open," Aprilia motorsport boss Massimo Rivola told MotoGP.com after the Indonesian GP.
"So, in a way, it's good that we have more riders that can fight for [wins in] races - at the same time we will steal points between each other.
"But at the end for Aprilia, it's good for the brand to have bikes in front, and I think they all deserve to have their chance.
"Obviously, if it will be only one rider at one stage [in contention], maybe for the last two races, we will see."
"For the moment, as Massimo declared in the interview, everybody is completely free," echoed technical director Fabiano Sterlacchini.
No Aprilia rider is technically mathematically eliminated from title contention. But there are different levels of mathematical plausibility - Martin's chance is tangible, Bezzecchi's is a long shot, and Trackhouse riders Ai Ogura (96 points off) and Raul Fernandez (119 points off) are out of contention by any realistic measure.
"Clearly, we start to discuss between us, to start to put some directives, guidelines to avoid problems," added Sterlacchini - but both he and Rivola pointed out that those guidelines were insufficient to prevent the collision between Fernandez and Bezzecchi at the start of the Mandalika sprint.
And while some MotoGP factories have used coded dashboard messages in the past - and pit board communication is also very possible - Rivola believes Aprilia is limited in what it can actually do.
"I mean, we are not F1," said Rivola, formerly a Ferrari F1 sporting director.
"There's no radio - we can have our chats and meetings, we always say to our guys to behave, especially between Aprilias, but then you see what happened yesterday at the start. "So, if you have also a bit of bad luck, then... s**t happens."
And Rivola has maintained that Bezzecchi is still genuinely in the title hunt.
"Yeah, I think so, yeah-yeah. This sport shows that it's so easy to make a zero[-point race], that everything can happen."
