Yamaha names Martin and Ogura as 2027 factory riders as Aprilia dominates 2026 MotoGP season

Yamaha announced that Jorge Martin, the 2024 MotoGP champion, and Japanese rider Ai Ogura will be its factory riders for the 2027 season, succeeding Fabio Quartararo and Alex Rins. The pair combines Martin’s proven speed with Ogura’s recent breakthrough win, the first by a Japanese rider in over two decades, positioning Yamaha for a competitive campaign under the new 2027 technical regulations.

In the preceding 2026 season, Aprilia delivered a dramatic performance surge, shaving roughly 50 seconds off its cumulative race times and posting dominant qualifying and race results, notably a front‑row sweep and victory at Assen. The rapid pace gain left rivals Yamaha and Ducati lagging, raising concerns about their development programmes, while Honda made incremental progress but remained behind Aprilia’s RS‑GP bike.