The Spaniard: “We have done a great team work, now I understand why Ducati has the best bike”. For Aprilia, the work is uphill. Study phase for Yamaha and Honda
The first three days of MotoGP 2025 tests ended in Sepang with Alex Marquez in front of everyone. The Spaniard went strong from the beginning and in the end he set the time of 1’56.493, just over a tenth and a half from the Bagnaia’s 2024 track record: 1’56.337. Bagnaia who closed the tests in second place. So, two ducats in front of the group of pursuers led by Fabio Quartararo, third time, and Franco Morbidelli, Quarto. Then Marc Marquez, fifth time, engaged in the rhythm and simulation of sprint than on the dry lap. Following Pedro Acosta, still first of the KTM, in front of Johan Zarco’s Honda. Eighth mir. Ninth bezzecchi with 0.835 of the head gap. Rins on Yamaha closes the top ten. Best of the debutants Aldeguer, 11th half, Ogura 14th, Chantra 19th. Under the expectations Miller (12th) and Oliveira (17th). Ditto for Vinales (16th behind Luca Marini) and for Bastianini (18th). Next appointment 12 and 13 February in Buriram, the last two days of testing before the start of the championship of 28 February-1 and 2 March.
reflection
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What can I say? Tests with many falls that lead to a reflection on how the tests are made on the eve of the new season of the world championship. Before the dorna era, pilots and teams were free to turn on the track with their motorcycle racing where and when they wanted. Today, especially due to image, that is, business, there are “mandatory” tests, with pilots who, almost “cold”, forces without being still masters of the new means. Back you don’t go back, right. Why not get to a middle ground, confirming this type of “official” tests with all the drivers and all the teams present but leaving the teams free to try before, at least once, where and when they want, not only with the Tester? Would this decrease the show and therefore the interest in the first seasonal tests? The risk is that this is the case at the first race season with forced or not in shape pilots, causes falls of the previous official tests. However, the message of these first tests, always to be taken with the pliers, seems clear: the Ducati are the bikes to beat and Bagnaia and Marc Marquez are the points of reference for everyone. We analyze, schematically, what happened in the technical tests.
Ducati
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Times in hand, and not only, confirm the competitiveness of the Ducati. Therefore the development program aims to start from the consolidated base avoiding to move balances that make the GP25 regress compared to the GP24. We are particularly committed to the frame, with Bagnaia and Marquez engaged in understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the new cycling. It is essentially the chassis version already tried by Pecco last year in September, in the tests carried out after race 1 in Misano. The chassis had been welcomed by Pecco, but it was decided not to use it in the final part of the season, being Ducati already clearly ahead in the standings. As the team manager Davide Tardozzi confirmed “if Pecco and Marc did not have the same feeling on the chassis, there would be no problems providing two different frames to the two drivers”. Both drivers of the Lenovo team carried out several comparative tests between GP25 and GP24 and in the box there were relevant aerodynamic updates. The way of work in the Ducati Factory team was explained by Marc Marquez: “We have done a great team work, now I understood why Ducati has the best bike. At the beginning, both I Pecco had strange sensations when cornering, so we worked together with Dall’Igna to solve and understood what the problem was. Precisely this problem of problem-discussion has positively surprised me, I was not used to working like this. Pecco and I worked in opposite directions, in order to understand which way to take. I think we have identified it and now I understand why Ducati has such a strong bike: when you have problems you have to feel calm and try to understand, it is a method that I had never experienced. “Bagnaia appreciated the level already reached by its red But he questioned the braking, his stronger point. Every inertia continues to work on this. In MotoGP precisely from the house of Borgo Panigale. The other evident aspect is the conspicuous channel that has been created between the diffuser and the most protruding part of the hull. The “ears” in the lower/front part of the hull should also guarantee a different dynamic of the vehicle. Substantially Ducati experiences solutions that mark a further qualitative leap in aerodynamic research, while on the engine, especially by virtue of freezing in the development expected until the end of 2026, we work with smaller updates. There was also a lot of work on the brakes also because both Factory drivers did not say they are too happy with how the new motorcycle is currently behaving in the detached.
Aprilia
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For Aprilia, uphill work, for the consequences of the falls of Martin and Fernandez and also for the fact that Ogura is a rookie. In fact, the test was loaded almost entirely on Marco Bezzecchi’s shoulders, who did not however pulled back. The Bez has basically promoted the new motorcycle, setting aside version 2024 and, while underlining the general state of “Work in progress”, said he was satisfied with the “small forward steps” that the new RS-GP showed on the track. In particular, the engine seems to satisfy the academy pilot at the power level, as the braking seems satisfactory, while the work on electronics remains to be refined, especially as regards the need to develop the delivery optimally of the engine in the right interaction with the cycling, in order to optimize the dynamic behavior of the vehicle.
Yamaha
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House of the Diapason with 12 motorcycles present: 3 each for Quartararo and Rins, two per person for the Pramac drivers and 2 overall for Fernandez and Dovizioso. The new V4 engine will be seen later, but in the meantime there have been three different solutions of the looming frame of the official drivers. Other new features concern a new swingarm, and updates on the aerodynamic front. It should be remembered that Yamaha was on the track with the official drivers already in the “Shakedown” of last week. However, the world champion 2021 seems to want to remember that his talent has not been affected by the last two years of poor competitiveness of Iwata’s motorcycle, and that at 26 years of age he still wants to run for the role of luxury outsiders.
Honda
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A lot of work also in the Honda house, with comparative tests between the motorcycles with “winged” codons and those with the shaped rear, which could host a different mass damper, in ducati “style”.
Martin
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Today Jorge Martin arrived in Spain to be operated on the Quiron Dexeus clinic in Barcelona for the fracture suffered in his right hand and left foot in the fall of the first day of testing in Sepang. The goal of the MotoGP world champion is to be able to recover in a hurry and return to the track on the RS-GP 2025 aprilia even for next week tests in Thailand, more likely, for the first seasonal GP, always in Buriram . Precise and controversy continued on the accident. Massimo Rivola, CEO of Aprilia, reiterated that no anomalies were found on the bike and not even particular errors of the pilot, also making a passage on the tires mounted on Martin’s motorcycle at the time of falling. “It is clear that if they are tires that have been in a case for a year it is not good,” he said. Piero Taramasso on the track was not long in waiting for the replica of the Michelin manager: “We were able to analyze the internal temperature: the tire was colder than 15 degrees than the necessary. The track was slippery, there was wind and the temperatures were lower than we are used to, there were 30 degrees instead of 50. With an unreadicated rubber, the fall is explained, the rubber was new and its story was clean ” . In Aprilia they accept, but they are not very convinced.
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