Jorge Martin has overcome numerous serious injuries throughout his career—the Aprilia rider reveals how this has changed his perspective on racing
Jorge Martin has already experienced several setbacks in his career. Broken bones, serious crashes, and most recently, protracted injuries that nearly completely derailed his start to the 2025 MotoGP season have shaped him.
When asked whether the many injuries have made him more resilient to pain, Martin finds it difficult to answer: “That’s a difficult question.”
Basically, every rider deals with pain in their own way. For himself, however, he believes he can “endure quite a lot of pain.” At the same time, the Spaniard puts into perspective the supposed toughness often attributed to racers. After all, he says, pain is ultimately quite similar for everyone.
It’s the situation that makes the difference: “When we’re racing, we don’t feel it as strongly because of all the adrenaline—or we only feel it afterward.” For Martin, therefore, it’s not so much the individual pain threshold that matters as the extraordinary mix of adrenaline, pressure, and focus that arises during a race weekend.
“So I think it’s more about the adrenaline and the pressure we’re under that allows us to race despite the pain. It also depends on the injury.”
Martin Appreciates His Health More
As for his development as a person and a rider, Martin admits that the injuries of recent years have, above all, changed his perspective: “I think the biggest difference is that I really enjoy the moment.”
Before his injury, life as a racer had flown by at a breathtaking pace. “Everything goes by so fast that you don’t even realize how wonderful it actually is to be healthy and ride a motorcycle,” says Martin.
It was only during the difficult times that he came to realize just how important health really is: “In those moments, you realize that you just want to stay healthy.”
That’s why he now appreciates his everyday life as a MotoGP rider all the more. “Now I’m healthy, I feel good, and I’m incredibly grateful for that,” emphasizes the 28-year-old, who just last year feared he would never be able to race in MotoGP again.
After several injuries and a serious crash in Qatar in 2025—in which he suffered rib injuries and a pneumothorax, among other things—Martin worked his way back onto the motorcycle step by step. His comeback only became a realistic possibility again after intensive rehabilitation and successful tests.
Mentality Has Changed, but Riding Style Has Barely Changed
On the track, too, Martin sees differences compared to his former self, though less in his riding than in his mindset: “My mentality has changed significantly when it comes to being a rider or how I approach the weekend.”
His riding style, on the other hand, has remained surprisingly consistent. Although he cites the braking phase as his biggest weakness from last season, overall the world champion feels much the same today as he did in 2024. “It feels very similar,” he explains. “I feel like I’m riding more or less the same way.”
The switch to the Aprilia, however, required some adjustments. “I have to take different lines than I used to,” says Martin. By now, however, he has come to understand these quirks and knows exactly how to handle the bike.
“So overall, I feel exactly the same as a rider,” the Spaniard notes, adding: “Of course, I hope I’m better. I’ll keep trying to improve.”
