Aprilia surge leaves Ducati trailing despite lap time gains in 2026 MotoGP battle

During an episode of the Gas It Out podcast, former MotoGP rider and WSBK champion Sylvain Guintoli raised an interesting point regarding the development war between the two teams, an observation which caught his co-host Neil Hodgson and Gavin Emmet by surprise.

"Let's not forget," said Guintoli, "Ducati have made progress, they have made progress since last year."

"Have they?" asked Emmet, somewhat bewildered by the statement. After all, Ducati took all three spots on the podium in several of the opening rounds in 2022, but have failed to secure even a single podium appearance across the factory team in 2026.

"Yeah they have, yeah." replied Guintoli, "All the lap times are a bit faster everywhere, but Aprilia's made better progress. They've progressed more."

The 2014 WSBK champion was certainly right about that. Marc Marquez took pole position in the 2025 Thai Grand Prix with a lap time of 1:28.782, and for comparison his time this year was 1:28.687, but it was still not enough to beat Marco Bezzecchi to pole.

"Aprilia has found so much pace," he continued, "Bezzecchi started in Thailand by doing the race sixteen seconds faster than he did the year before, so they've made massive inroads during the second part of last year. Obviously Bezzecchi dominated at the end of last year as well with the two wins in Portugal and Valencia, but Marc [Marquez] wasn't there, but he still dominated."

"They've brought that form and the rest of it, with a different aero this year for 2026. So, it's Aprilia that's made massive inroads."

Hard to disagree with the raw data, so is Ducati really in a crisis as their bosses suggest? Or is it really just that Aprilia has surpassed them, at least for now, in MotoGP's championship development war?