Coming into the year as an Aprilia racer, only weeks after winning the 2024 MotoGP world championship on a privateer Ducati, Jorge Martin was always going to find the 2025 season an unusual one. But it was one where, in a very different factory environment, the 27-year-old had the chance to not just prove himself but to mature into a long-term title-winning threat.
Things didn't quite go to plan right from the off, with a testing injury that delayed his start to the season - followed by one incident after another that derailed his entire year. Martin ended the season finishing only a mere seven grands prix out of the season's 22.
But, following the worst of those falls - a bone-shattering collision with Fabio Di Giannantonio at the Qatar Grand Prix that broke every rib in Martin's body and left him fearing for his life - it seemed that that promised breakthrough had, at long last, happened.
Returning to the championship a calmer figure - someone who had experienced the worst that racing has to offer and who came out the other side - and having reflected on his aborted attempt to leave Aprilia, he put together a wholly competent middle section of the season even as he battled to return to full fitness.
That, of course, all disappeared again at the Japanese GP in September, only days after Martin sat down with The Race to discuss his year to date. Making a wholly unnecessary lunge on team-mate Marco Bezzecchi at Turn 1 in the sprint that left both of them in the gravel, it brought Martin's season to another halt and reopened previously closed questions about his maturity.
But while he might have been rash at Motegi, it shouldn't detract from the changed Martin that did finally turn up in the latter stages of 2025, for one reason more than any other: his newfound ability to reflect on not just the injuries but also the mistakes of 2025.
First of those errors, in the grand scheme of things, was rushing back to MotoGP action too soon following the wrist injuries sustained while training on a supermoto bike as part of the return to fitness from his first testing crash at Sepang.
It's a trait in modern MotoGP for riders to return as quickly as possible, but avoiding a repeat might be the most important thing that Martin has learned from the year, given that he recognises now that it almost killed him at the Qatar race.
"My hand wasn't ready," he admitted. "I wasn't ready physically, and after two or three laps I was already f***ed. After 15 or 16 laps I was tired, and that's why I crashed. For sure I had the bad luck that Diggia [Di Giannantonio] was just behind, and without that I wouldn't have had a big crash.
"We are always trying to come back soon, but I think compared to other years we are getting safer. In the past, we just said, 'I don't care about the pain', got the plate and the screws [inserted], and got back on the bike.
"Now, from my side and I think also from the doctors, I think it is better. But it is still early. A football player gets injured for one year, but they still get paid. We have to get food for our families, and it's always important to go back soon.
"You always want to deliver good results, to not miss opportunities. But it is what it is; our sport is dangerous and it will be like this forever.
"My nickname is Martinator, like Terminator. I didn't like it in the beginning, but now I feel it. I feel it because I am half titanium and half muscle! The best sportsmen in history are not the ones who win a lot, they are the ones who come back after a loss, and who keep fighting until they win again.
"This is completely my mentality. I watch [Rafael] Nadal, [Novak] Djovokic, Marc [Marquez], all these guys, and they are amazing athletes. I hope that when I retire I can say I am one of those who never gave up."
From that crash in particular grew the other big drama of Martin's season: his planned separation from Aprilia, despite having sat on the bike on a race grid just one time at the point where word first leaked out that he was trying to engineer a dramatic mid-contract switch to Honda.
"It wouldn't even have started," he said, in reference to his exploration of a move, when asked what would have happened had he been able to race as normal.
"When I was in the hospital, I had a lot of doubts about my future, and not just my future about which team I was going to race for, but whether I would be fast again, or even if I would be able to go on a MotoGP bike ever again.
"I just wanted to have a long future closed, and that's why I had a lot of doubts and why I started to move. But finally I can see I am fast, and now I can trust much more in myself than I was doing after the Qatar injury.
"I was out of the paddock. I lost the connection with the team, with motorbikes. It was a really strange feeling, and for sure it was really difficult to understand that Aprilia was winning but that I wanted to leave.
"I guess some people understand it now and some don't, but I don't really care. What is important is that Aprilia and I are in the same direction, both want the same results, and that we are working towards the same target. That is the most important thing.
"When you have 20 broken bones, when you are in the ICU close to dying, it's really easy to understand why you think that you need a change or why you have a bad feeling. That you need a reset or something like this."
Compounding that, of course, was the hit not just of self doubt but also of being left behind, considering that, as Martin sat at home, Bezzecchi turned around a difficult start to the season for Aprilia and started racking up wins, something that Martin conceded he wasn't delighted at the time to see.
"From my point of view it was a difficult situation," he admitted, "because I was in some conflict with Aprilia. On one hand, it was good that Aprilia was working, and this was really motivating me for my comeback because I thought that I could do a really good job.
"But on the other hand, I was in a bit of fight with them and I didn't really like that they were doing good. I wasn't really looking a lot at the races, because I needed to switch off for a month with no motorbikes, and this was the period when Marco won in Silverstone and was making some good races.
"But now for sure I can see it was a really good thing, and now I feel really good with Aprilia and that I'm an Aprilia racer. I'm glad that [team boss] Massimo [Rivola] retained me, let's say, and finally we went in a good direction together."
And with a line now very much drawn under the theatrics of 2025 and with an Aprilia RS-GP waiting for him that looks to have dramatically closed the gap to Ducati, in theory Martin will start 2026 in a much better situation than he was in 12 months ago, even without injury.
"The future looks bright," said Martin. "I think that the Aprilia is a really good bike. They've done an amazing job.
"There's still a lot of details that we need to work on, a lot; it's not just one thing that we can say we need to improve. But they're working on it, and I think it's better to have a lot of small things that will come together as a big puzzle than one thing that you really need to improve.
"There are some tracks where we are really, really fast, and there are some tracks where we struggle a bit more, but you can see with Marco: he struggled in the first six or seven races and then he has always been fast. In braking, in acceleration, in turning, we've improved overall, and I think now it's just a matter of time to get used to the bike.
"With the bike I was using last year, you could use different styles and everything was working. Now, you have to ride with what the Aprilia wants, and in the Misano test [in mid-September] I made a big, big step in terms of riding style and position on the bike."
And while there's still work to be done (including a pre-season testing programme essentially delayed a by a full calendar year) before Martin is ready to declare himself once again a title contender, it seems like the lessons of a tough 12 months will be key to his success.
"The important thing is to work hard from a really humble position, to just work, work, work. I will give my 100% to be ready there, but I'm still working on this process. I'll give my 100%, and with 100% from the bike I hope that this gives us the opportunity to fight for the championship against a really strong Marc, really strong Ducati. It will be tough, but I think we are going in the right direction.
"I was really sure from the point that I came back in Brno that things would go well next year, but I missed those first races, missed a lot of data. The point where I'm still missing the confidence, especially with the electronics. So we need to work really well in the pre-season to try and have a good base, and that's all.
"We can do it, but it is a lot of work!"
