Jorge Martin has a terrible nickname. ‘The Martinator’ won’t trouble MotoGP iconography but fittingly describes a steely inevitability to the Pramac rider’s competitiveness and ability to set the bar of speed, regularity (and even style) in Grands Prix.
The 2018 Moto3 world champion has been working to this point since he emerged as a central title player in the premier class last season. Armed with the best motorcycle on the grid and having steered the Ducati Desmosedici from his rookie term in 2021, where he grabbed a podium finish in his second race and a win by mid-season after recovering from horrendous injuries sustained in a crash in Portugal's third round, Martin has progressed from being a racer renowned for phenomenal one-lap speed to a formidable opponent with an all-round skill set and a stronger mentality.
From his emphatic debut in 2021, Martin has (perhaps unwillingly) cultivated an image of a man with a chip on his shoulder. At the end of 2022, he was overlooked in favour of Enea Bastianini for the second factory Ducati saddle next to world champion Francesco Bagnaia. During his duel with Bagnaia for the crown in 2023, there was a tangible ‘us versus them’ dynamic among the Pramac and factory Ducati teams.
Then in the opening period of 2024, Martin was again shunned for works Ducati status as the Italians decided to sign a two-year agreement with Marc Marquez. Martin’s reaction to Ducati’s second snub was to zip up his leathers and carry his helmet to the works Aprilia box for 2025 and 2026.
His air of confidence, and the slight swagger behind the good looks and the pace mean that Spanish fans have tended to talk more about Marquez returning to the peak of MotoGP after injury and his Ducati switch, or the emergence of starlet Pedro Acosta. Martin is popular, but also divisive.
More importantly, he is good. At last weekend’s Aragon GP, he finished runner-up to Marquez for his ninth podium from 12 rounds (19 from the last 23 Grands Prix) and retook control of the championship standings. There have been slips in Spain and Germany this year, both times after winning the Saturday sprint, but Martin has exercised more control, more constraint and more consistency, fulfilling one of his targets.
When we sit down to talk, there is a weariness and a slight hesitation. His mind cogs are almost audible, ‘here we go…Aprilia, Bagnaia, Ducati again…’. Instead, we chat about another facet of his life and job: the pressure and preparation that come with the spotlight.
“You can see nowadays that I have a camera 24-7,” he says, gesturing towards the Dorna TV staff behind us. Martin can come across as nonchalant, but also sensitive. Losing out on the factory Ducati ride to Marquez and going against Valentino Rossi’s VR46 collective in MotoGP often means rubbing against parts of the establishment. He therefore takes on the role of the outsider or the usurper.
"I don’t feel the kind of pressure where, say, I’m unable to breathe… but if you don’t work on it, then you can arrive to that point"
Jorge Martin
“It’s not easy to understand it at the beginning, when people are making bad comments about you,” he says quietly in excellent English. “Difficult to analyse them and, if you don’t work on it, they will affect you. I am trying to work on it…and be conscious of who I am, or try not to get affected by what people think of me.
“For sure it always does,” he smiles, “but I think that anybody who criticises you - who is not better than you - will not help you to improve. For the most part, those who are talking about me are not as good as me at riding motorbikes!”
He admits that he rarely looks at social media these days. “I don’t want to read a lot about sport, or even myself, because it will affect the riding a bit. It’s best to let it go,” he says. Martin also cycles frequently, not just for training but “to get out by myself and to be alone and to know myself a bit more”.
Martin says that he watches sports documentaries, but also reads about psychology. “About mental health; I can see a lot of sportsmen and athletes having issues with this now,” he expands. “When I read, or perhaps learn about these stories in documentaries, I see that my situation can be similar.
“I don’t feel the kind of pressure where, say, I’m unable to breathe… but if you don’t work on it, then you can arrive to that point. It’s not easy and in the past people didn’t know so much… but now some people are suffering. I want to be happy. I race motorcycles but I want to enjoy my life, and I want to do it as a job, but also because it’s my passion and a fun thing.”
Moving into a good place personally and professionally, with a base in Andorra has had obvious benefits, according to neighbour and close friend Aleix Espargaro.
“I see him happier after signing for Aprilia,” the Catalan said. “For the last two seasons, I have seen him focused and working good, but now he is happy, less stressed and doing what he wants. For an athlete with a lot of stress, the happiness is really key to success.”
“Jorge is naturally a nervous and excitable guy and it’s something he’s been working on,” says his rep Marc Balsells, from the Playmaker agency and someone who has known Martin since his days roaming the Spanish championship. “For a long time he was one of those people who would always look back on his actions and think ‘what if…?’, and that created a lot of internal stress.
“He’s learned to be more ‘in the moment’. He’s really improved in this sense, and I think it’s clear to see for a lot of people that from 2023 to 2024 he has figured out when and where to push and at the right time. The same in his private life and with the media.”
How has Martin made these improvements? “I do a lot of meditation,” he says. “I started this season, and it helps me a lot to know about myself and get away from bad thinking. I mean, we all have problems, and meditation helps me to realise that the problems are not always with me. I can put them away and solve them step-by-step and not get obsessed by a thought.
“I’m an energetic guy. I’m always doing something from 8am until 11pm. I never stop so it’s hard to switch off even for fifteen minutes every day and think about myself, try to breathe and be conscious of my body. I think it is helping me and it is 80% of the step I’ve made from past seasons to this one. It helps for concentration too.”
Concentration is a prime asset for any athlete at the peak of their profession. Mistakes by Martin at key points in 2023, most notably while leading in Indonesia during the championship run-in, was pivotal.
“My concentration is really good,” he insists now. “I don’t know about other riders, but sometimes being in the lead for twenty-eight laps is not easy! One thing I work on is re-focusing because sometimes you might lose concentration, and you need to bring it back straightaway. This is really difficult and it’s a thing I can do quite a lot. Maybe that’s my strong point.”
Martin has been able to amplify his focus from the asphalt in front of his visor to a much wider picture and that has helped with his excellent consistency, and also to rebound from moments like his qualifying crash at Aragon on Saturday to be the ‘best of the rest’ behind Marquez. “Jorge rides on his emotions but he knows how to control them more,” Balsells claims.
"I am still learning and improving and there have been moments this season when I have crashed in the lead, so I still need to improve a lot"
Jorge Martin
“I think I improved the mental side quite a lot because [before] I did not understand how much I was pushing [on the bike],” Martin continues. “I was just trying to go fast. I worked more on trying to understand situations and whether I should push more or less. For sure, I am still learning and improving and there have been moments this season when I have crashed in the lead, so I still need to improve a lot.”
Martin likes the trappings of his achievements. His Instagram account is full of MotoGP moments, highly stylised photos, a few boats and private jets. He has a personal deal with American optics brand ‘100%’ with their priorities towards design and cool imagery.
“I have my things because I earned them!” he says a little defiantly. “I worked every day and dedicated my mentality to it; to great performance. I make my money and I try to enjoy it, not only on myself but on my family and family of the future. You can show your life…but I don’t do things to show it to people. I do it to enjoy my life.”
Come November's Valencia Grand Prix and the MotoGP Awards ceremony, during a week where Martin will jump from ‘red’ to ‘black’, he could be enjoying himself a lot more.
