Aprilia Racing has confirmed that Jorge Martin will miss the 2026 MotoGP Sepang shakedown test and the subsequent official pre‑season event, marking another setback in his injury‑fraught run‑in toward the new campaign.
The Noale‑based outfit revealed that the Spaniard is absent from track action so that he can continue his recovery from two revision surgeries performed in mid‑December, both aimed at fully resolving lingering issues with his left scaphoid wrist bone and right clavicle.
While Martin will not ride the Aprilia RS‑GP26 at the Malaysian circuit, he is still expected to travel to Sepang and remain embedded with the team to observe development work and attend the official MotoGP launch activities due to unfold in Kuala Lumpur.
The team had hoped to put Martin straight onto the new bike in Malaysia after an already turbulent 2025 season that saw him sidelined for much of the year and ultimately limited to just seven race appearances.
Instead, Italian test rider Lorenzo Savadori will take over his spot among eight Aprilia RS‑GP26 machines across the factory team and the Trackhouse satellite outfit over the coming days.
Martin’s 2025 campaign was characterised by a series of crashes and broken bones which left him physically vulnerable during the winter and raised concerns among medical staff about the healing of several old injuries.
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After two major accidents early in the season and a further fracture suffered in training prior to the Thai Grand Prix, the Spaniard fought his way back to appear at the Valencia finale, only for ongoing discomfort in his wrist and collarbone to prompt further specialist review.
In mid‑December, the decision was taken to operate again with surgeons performing revision surgeries on the scaphoid in the left hand—originally injured in last year’s pre‑season crash at Sepang—and on the right clavicle that he broke during a sprint race at Motegi in September 2025.
At the time of the operations, Aprilia Racing did not disclose the extent of the procedures, instead presenting Jorge Martin alongside Marco Bezzecchi at the 2026 MotoGP bike launch event in Milan, where the Spaniard appeared fit and optimistic about the new bike.
Part of what magnifies the sensitivity of Martin’s absence at the 2026 MotoGP Sepang shakedown test is the fact that this will be the second consecutive year in which he arrives with limited pre‑season testing mileage.
His 2025 opening‑test misfortune in Sepang already set his campaign back dramatically and forced him to relearn race‑pace under intense pressure in mid‑season events.
Now, with another string of surgeries and a further missed test window, questions linger within the paddock about how effectively Martin will be able to translate his raw pace into consistent points‑hauling operations if he is unable to build up side‑loaded reference on the bike at the crucial pre‑season benchmark events.
At the same time, the team argues that the long‑term benefits of a fully healed, pain‑free rider outweigh the short‑term compromise of reduced shakedown laps, particularly given that the Spanish rider has already reached his physical limits in previous seasons due to repeated high‑speed accidents.
From a contractual and sporting‑pathway standpoint, Martin’s 2026 season comes amid intense speculation about his mid‑term future in MotoGP, with multiple manufacturers already circling as potential destinations for his services beyond this campaign.
Yamaha has been linked to a move that would see Martin’s Aprilia exit to join the Japanese manufacturer for the 2027 season, a scenario that would add further tension to the Spaniard’s relationship with the Italian factory if his performance in 2026 does not fully match expectations.
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