In response to Aprilia’s request for Jorge Martin, Marc Marquez thinks permitting injured MotoGP riders to test prior to their racing comebacks “can be a good rule,” but not for immediate introduction.

The reigning MotoGP champion missed all of this year’s preseason testing because of multiple fractures sustained in a crash on the first day of winter running at Sepang.

He also fractured his wrist in a second fall during training before the Thai Grand Prix, ruling him out until at least the Qatar GP next month for the race.

Although there has been support for the proposal, Ducati has publicly stated that it would not support this rule change taking place this year but is open to it being introduced in the future.

Marc Marquez agrees, but he thinks one day of testing after a long time away from the bike won’t make much difference. Since last November, Martin has only completed 90 laps on the factory Aprilia. Aprilia has formally submitted a request to allow Martin to test the RS-GP prior to his racing comeback.

“At the moment, the regulation is not like that. When I came back from my injury [in 2021], this rule was not there.

“You could introduce a rule to allow a rider who has been out of competition for two months to do one day of testing—not more, because two days would already be too much.

“One day of testing is enough to get the rhythm with the bike.

“You could put a minimum time [in place], but the teams have to decide. For the riders, it’s important, but in the end, when you go two months without riding a MotoGP bike, one more or less day of testing doesn’t change much.