As Motorsport.com reports, the battle for the championship between Aprilia and Ducati is intensifying as the season enters its final five rounds. Jorge Martin currently holds a narrow two-point lead for Aprilia over Ducati star Marc Marquez, bringing the question of team orders sharply into focus as Aprilia chases its maiden premier-class world title.
Ducati, however, is refusing to panic or lock its riders into team instructions. The 33-year-old Marc Marquez already stated on Friday that "if you are fast, you don’t need team orders," throwing a direct jibe at his title rival Martin, who finished only third among the four Aprilias during the last round in Indonesia. Ducati team manager Davide Tardozzi echoed that sentiment directly, telling MotoGP.com: “I would like to use what Marc said: ‘if you are fast, you don’t need help’. That’s it.”
The target is clear but we don’t want to say anything about rider orders,
Asked if deploying team orders might detract from a potential championship success by Aprilia, Tardozzi was entirely dismissive of their rivals' internal strategies. “They can do whatever they want. We are trying to focus only to be fast on track," he stated, noting that Ducati's primary objective remains securing the best possible results for Marc Marquez.
Aprilia itself is walking a fine line. Following a dominant 1-2-3-4 finish in Indonesia, the Noale marque admitted it is considering team orders for the future, though management stopped short of committing to a timeline. Ahead of the Australian Grand Prix, team bosses met with all four of their riders at Phillip Island to lay down ground rules. Aprilia team manager Paolo Bonora explained that it is still too early to enforce team orders, emphasizing that the immediate priority is avoiding costly collisions between stablemates.
“The target is clear but we don’t want to say anything about rider orders," Bonora told MotoGP.com, adding that the squad wants all of its riders fighting at the front. During the meeting, riders were instructed simply to show respect and avoid unnecessary risks when overtaking machines from the same manufacturer.
While no deadline has been set, Aprilia acknowledges that with margins razor-thin during the final year of the 1000cc cycle, every single point will matter. Bonora admitted that if a small points gap opens up later in the season, utilizing team orders could become an option, but for now, no clear instructions have been defined.
