Category: MotoGp

This weekend the 2019 MotoGP World Championship begins in Qatar, under the lights of the Losail International Circuit.

Losail is an interesting circuit. The long front straight – one of the fastest of the season – means that power is necessary, but the intensity of the corners after that mean that a sweet handling chassis can also be of use, especially in the three fast right-handers towards the end of the lap.

Partly because of this good combination and partly because Losail is home to the final preseason test – allowing riders and teams to already arrive at a good setting before the Grand Prix weekend even begins – the Grand Prix of Qatar regularly throws up a good race. This year, there are predictions of a ten-rider battle for the podium.

Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team), is sure to be one of those riders fighting for the podium. It is slightly hard to believe that the reigning World Champion is about to embark on his seventh season in the premier class, and harder still, to believe that he could win his sixth title come the end of November. Regardless, the all-action Spaniard is not considered – by himself or anyone else – as a Qatar specialist. Marquez has never gone well in Doha – at least, not compared to other places. That said, he does have two wins to his name under the lights in 2012 – when he came back from his eye injury in Sepang 2011 to win – and 2014 when he won whilst with a fairly recently broken leg in a strong battle with Valentino Rossi. Marquez was also very close to the win last season, finishing just 0.027 seconds behind Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso. With the additional power of the Honda this year, perhaps the Spaniard can reverse that deficit in 2019.

Marquez also suffered in preseason this year, and is still recovering from surgery on his damaged shoulder in December of last year. In a similar way, Marquez’s teammate, Jorge Lorenzo (Repsol Honda Team) had his preseason blighted by injury: a broken scaphoid, which he doesn’t expect to be fully recovered from until the championship heads back to Europe in May. That said, Lorenzo showed some impressive speed in the Qatar test, and should be able to make at least the majority of the race in the battle at the front.

Lorenzo’s record is good in Qatar, too. In fact, it is the best, with six wins across all classes in Qatar, starting back in 2004 when he beat Dovizioso to the 125cc win in what was then the heat of the midday desert sun. Lorenzo also holds the race lap record in Qatar, from 2016 when he rode the M1 to his most recent win at Losail. A repeat of that 2016 result would be a tough ask this time round, but it would be a surprise to not see Lorenzo figuring in the front group come Sunday night.

Losail was always the circuit which suited the Ducati best, back when it couldn’t turn in, or through a corner, and when it had concessions and softer tyres. In 2018, Andrea Dovizioso (Mission Winnow Ducati) finally delivered on the victory both he and the Desmosedici had been promising since 2015. Dovizioso was also arguably the most settled rider throughout preseason testing, and is probably the favourite for this race, despite two riders in particular having potentially better pace, because of the speed of the Desmosedici on the straight.

Whilst Honda have made gains in the motor department compared to Ducati, Yamaha and Suzuki have not. Suzuki have more power for this year, but they are still at a disadvantage to the Desmosedici in a straight line, and Yamaha’s engine development over the winter was primarily focused on using the tyre more efficiently compared to the last three seasons.

This means that whilst Maverick Vinales (Monster Energy Yamaha) – who topped the test in Qatar quite convincingly – and Alex Rins (Ecstar Suzuki Team) have arguably better pace than their rivals, their lack of straight line speed could make them easy prey for the likes of Dovizioso and Marquez in the straight.

Despite this, the pace the two Spaniards showed throughout testing – not just in Qatar, but in Sepang as well – means that they must be among the favourites for this weekends premier class Grand Prix.

Valentino Rossi (Monster Energy Yamaha) and Danilo Petrucci (Mission Winnow Ducati) should also be in the mix this weekend.

Rossi’s mood over preseason has been largely positive yet reserved, saying that Yamaha are on the right path but that they have more work to do. Vinales agrees with this, mostly, despite his superior pace. Even still, Rossi’s record (four premier class wins) in Losail means he will be expected to be fighting at the front this weekend. Additionally, Rossi has been on the podium in Losail each year since he returned to Yamaha in 2013, with the exception of 2016 when he finished fourth.

For Petrucci, there is a lot of pressure this weekend. It is his debut for the factory Ducati team, and he needs immediate performance. Fortunately for the Italian, his pace over the winter would suggest he is up to the task. He has showed on several occasions that he has the speed as well as the consistency to mean that the #9 Desmosedici GP19 will have a lot of expectation on it this season. The Italian does not have long to convince Ducati that they should keep him for 2020 – such is the nature of the MotoGP rider market – so a good result this weekend could be crucial.

As well as the factory riders, there are satellite rides who should have an eye kept on them this weekend.

Firstly, Franco Morbidelli (Petronas SRT Yamaha) has been impressive over the winter and could figure this weekend, although he appears to still be suffering with tyre life and acceleration issues.

Secondly, Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) must always be considered as a potential front runner. However, the Briton is still suffering with his shattered right ankle – although it affects him less whilst riding – and a poor feeling with the front of the 2019 RC213V, a complaint echoed by Marquez. This will be a difficult weekend for Crutchlow, but it would be unfair to discount him at this stage.

The battle for rookie of the year also gets underway this weekend, of course. Francesco Bagnaia (Alma Pramac Racing) was second fastest in the Sepang test, half a tenth away from Danilo Petrucci’s new unofficial lap record, and had some promising race pace in Qatar.

Meanwhile, Fabio Quartararo (Petronas SRT Yamaha) came alive in Qatar, figuring often in the top five, and setting some impressive long runs, too.

Joan Mir (Ecstar Suzuki Team) has missed the headline times, but in many ways that is typical of Mir, who only has one pole position in his Grand Prix career, back in Austria 2016. Mir has, though, looked good on race pace.

Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Tech 3) has not had the outstanding pace or speed of his three fellow rookies, owing largely no doubt to his machinery disadvantage – the KTM still very much in the early stage of its development – but compared to his KTM stablemates Oliveira has been impressive, setting comparative times to Johann Zarco (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) and being relatively close to Pol Espargaro’s (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) times, too.

The battle for rookie of the year could be one of the most intriguing and exciting parts of the 2019 MotoGP season.

The final MotoGP preseason test of 2019 took place over the weekend in Qatar, with teams and riders looking to try any last new things they might have wanted to evaluate before the first Grand Prix – in Losail – which gets underway in just nine days’ time, as well as look for further confirmation on items tested in Sepang a couple of weeks ago and to prepare for the Grand Prix of Qatar.

It was Maverick Vinales (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) who topped the combined times of the test, with a 1’54.208. Vinales had two tenths on the field, but was still six tenths shy of Johann Zarco’s outright lap record set in last year’s Q2 session at the Grand Prix itself. Vinales’ positive tune – which has been a constant since the post-season Valencia test last November – continued throughout the Qatar test. The Spaniard happy with the feeling he has on the bike, though still pointing out Yamaha’s need to improve on acceleration. It was this concern which was echoed by Vinales’ Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP teammate, Valentino Rossi, who sounded almost desperate after day two of the test. The Italian spent the second day trying some new things, and lost his direction, ending the day in nineteenth. He recovered on the final day, but feels he needs more to fight at the front. Overall the preseason has been positive for Yamaha, but we won’t find out exactly how positive until the paddock returns to Europe.

It has not been an easy preseason for Honda, with Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda MotoGP), Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) and Jorge Lorenzo (Repsol Honda Team) all suffering from injuries throughout the winter. This was made clear on the first day in Qatar, after which Marquez declared that the RC213V was a way behind its rivals. However, the strength of HRC’s package was shown on day two, when that deficit was erased, and Lorenzo and Marquez climbed the time sheets. Marquez has still yet to make a proper long run, as he is still nursing his left shoulder, but the laps he did put together showed him to be one of the strongest, which – of course – is a surprise to no one. In comparison, Lorenzo spent a lot of the test working on ergonomics, a big part of his success in Ducati. The sooner HRC can get him completely comfortable on the RC213V the sooner he will be able to fight for wins regularly.

The test was something of a disaster for Cal Crutchlow, who is missing some feeling with the front of the 2019 RC213V – an area which has been worked on over the winter to try to stress the front tyre less under braking. Another issue which was affecting Crutchlow in Losail was the size of the boot on his injured ankle, because he could not use the rear brake properly. Things like that should get easier, in theory, for Crutchlow over the course of the season, but his feeling on the bike is something which could prove more problematic for the Brit in the longer term.

Ducati’s test was mixed, with Mission Winnow Ducati duo Andrea Dovizioso and Danilo Petrucci both featuring in the top four on day one in Qatar, and Petrucci in fourth as well on the second day. However, by the end of the test, only one Desmosedici figured in the top ten, that of Petrucci. Meanwhile, fellow GP19 runners, Dovizioso and Jack Miller (Alma Pramac Racing) were in fifteenth and eleventh, respectively. Dovizioso admitted to a misdirection on the final day in Doha, whilst Miller was content with his performance, and is positive about his chances for the season opener, as is Danilo Petrucci who showed impressive pace and consistency on his long runs.

Perhaps one of the things which helped Petrucci in the long runs is the new piece of aerodynamics debuted by Ducati in Qatar, which appears to direct air towards the rear tyre, keeping it cool. As the heaviest rider on the grid, Petrucci stresses the tyre more than any other, which is exacerbated by the Desmosedici’s massive horsepower (although it must be noted that, looking at speed traps, Honda seem to have completely erased their deficit to the 90-degree L4 motor in the GP19). The additional stress caused by Petrucci’s weight means he builds heat in the tyre more than any other rider, and it is this which limits the Italian the most, so any method Ducati can come up with to keep the rear tyre cool is welcomed with open arms by the number nine.

One of the most impressive preseason performers has been Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) on his GSX-RR. After day two in Qatar, the 2013 Moto3 runner-up had featured inside the top two in four of the five days of testing and shown impressive race pace in both Losail and Sepang. Day three in Qatar saw Rins fall outside of the top ten, just as he had in Sepang, but there is no doubting the impressive gains made by Suzuki over the winter, and Alex Rins is clearly all too ready to take advantage of those. In Doha there was a new split-pipe exhaust for Rins to try (similar to those seen in Moto2 in the last couple of years). This may not have given an improvement in absolute power, but the top end gains made in the motor department of the GSX-RR over the winter may have prompted the engineers back in Hamamatsu to design a new exhaust to make that power more manageable.

Aprilia had a new fairing to try in Qatar, and also had the privilege of an Andrea Iannone (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) who was fully fit to ride in all three days. Additionally, Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) was able to be fast, despite admitting that he had to push the limits of the bike to be competitive. So far, though, Aprilia’s reversion to 2017’s RS-GP design appears to be working, and they look set for a decent 2019.

KTM, like Ducati, had a mixed test. Pol Espargaro (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) showed impressive speed throughout the three days, and reaffirmed his position as KTM’s strongest rider at the moment. His factory KTM teammate, Johann Zarco, however, seemed to take a step back from where he was after Sepang, and was only nineteenth at the close of the three days. There is clearly still a lot of work to do for the Frenchman with the RC16 before he is truly comfortable with it, but in Sepang he showed what his potential with the bike is, and both he and KTM should use that as encouragement going forward.

If nothing else, preseason testing showed us that the fight for top rookie this season will be spectacular. Francesco Bagnaia (Alma Pramac Racing) produced a brilliant hot lap in Sepang with his Ducati GP18 and went on to impress in race trim in Doha, ending the test thirteenth in the combined times, ahead of Dovizioso. Whilst Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar) had some impressive speed in Qatar aboard his Suzuki GSX-RR.

Additionally, Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT) was second in the Qatar test combined times, only two tenths from Maverick Vinales, and showed good speed on the long runs, too. Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Tech 3) may not be able to challenge the likes of Mir, Quartararo or Bagnaia on a regular basis this season, owing at least in part to his machinery, the progress the Portuguese has made over the winter has been impressive, and he is now clearly faster than teammate Hafizh Syahrin (Red Bull KTM Tech 3), and ended winter testing only 0.057 seconds slower than Johann Zarco. This year’s rookie battle might be the most exciting in recent memory.

With testing now complete before the season proper gets underway with free practice one at the Losail International Circuit on March 8th, the factories will now be sifting through the data gathered over these three days in Qatar to try and arrive at the Grand Prix in the best shape possible. It is not long now until we find out the reality of the order for the 2019 MotoGP World Championship.

Featured image courtesy of Yamaha Motor Racing Srl

Valentino Rossi turns 40 today, and in a few weeks will embark on his 24th season in Grand Prix racing, his twentieth in the premier class. Since 1996, Rossi has won 115 Grands Prix, 9 world titles, ridden for four different manufacturers, raced in each of the four iterations of the premier class (500cc, 990cc, 800cc, 1000cc), seen regulations change and evolve, and witnessed the entire face of racing morph into a wholly professional franchise which is as much a business as it is a sport.

In spite of the vast changes which have occurred in the racing scene in the past quarter-century, Rossi has managed to maintain his grip on the top of two-wheeled sport, both on track and off it.

In 2013, Valentino Rossi moved back to Yamaha after a couple of difficult seasons with Ducati, in which he managed only three podiums aboard the Desmosedici, and no wins. The first season back with Yamaha was mostly disappointing, scoring only one win – at Assen – and consistently being the slowest of the four Japanese factory riders, behind teammate Jorge Lorenzo, 2013 World Champion Marc Marquez and one of the first riders to receive some sort of racing tutorage from Rossi, Dani Pedrosa.

This sparked a revolution for Rossi. The then-35-year-old decided to formalise his rider training with fellow Italians Franco Morbidelli and Andrea Migno into what is now the VR46 Rider Academy, and to it he signed many more riders, such as Lorenzo Baldassarri, and Romano Fenati and Francesco Bagnaia, who would be the riders in the Sky Racing Team VR46 squad for its maiden campaign in the Moto3 World Championship.

The Doctor also underwent a transformation on track, himself. From 2014 preseason testing  it was clear that the Italian was playing with his riding style, moving his body around the bike in a way more associated with the young riders – like the ones he was signing to the Academy – not one who had nine world titles and a thirty-five-year-old body. In addition to this, there was a new crew chief in the #46 box, as Silvano Galbusuera replaced Jeremy Burgess, who had been ever-present in Rossi’s garage since the Italian’s debut in the premier class in 2000. It was this on-track, in-garage transformation that catalysed Rossi’s impressive 2014 season, in which he won two races – Misano and Phillip Island – and finished second in the championship behind a dominant Marc Marquez.

2014 lay the foundations for what was a spectacular title fight in 2015 between Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo, who went head-to-head for the first time since 2009 for a MotoGP World Championship title. Whilst the final result of the championship did not go the way of the Italian – thanks to a situation which occurred largely of his own volition – 2015 showed Rossi still has the capability to fight for a World Championship.

2016, ’17 and ’18 followed similar paths, with Rossi evolving his style each year and, whilst he went winless last year, he ended the championship in third place behind champion Marquez and Andrea Dovizioso, both of whom had unquestionably superior machinery.

With Rossi now into his fortieth year, and 24th of racing grand prix bikes, it remains to be seen whether he can muster another championship assault, but there is little doubt that The Doctor will have been working on evolving himself over the winter in preparation for this season to remain in the front fight. Forgetting numbers, Rossi’s ability to stay competitive year on year, suffering few injuries and seemingly ignoring age, is perhaps his greatest achievement.

MotoGP 2019 testing got underway this week and, as ever, was full of intrigue, with rookies impressing and factories unveiling some interesting innovations, visible and otherwise.

It was Ducati who ended the test on top, with a lockout of the top four on the final day, including a new unofficial track record for Danilo Petrucci with a 1’58.239, over half a second clear of Jorge Lorenzo’s previous track record from the Sepang test last year, and interestingly set without the FUBAR rear brake attachment. That lap from Lorenzo just over one year ago was performed on an early version of the Ducati GP18, the bike from which Pecco Bagnaia’s bike for 2019 is derived (Bagnaia is riding the latest version of the GP18, from the 2018 Valencia GP), and with that bike Bagnaia managed to go just 0.063 seconds shy of Petrucci’s time. Whilst Bagnaia was keen to play himself down, emphasising that he needs to work on his race pace this early speed is surely a positive sign going forward.

Ducati brought out some interesting things on the second two days of the test, with Andrea Dovizioso – who ended up fourth on the final day behind Jack Miller who was third – debuting a handlebar widget on the second day, thought to be a ‘holeshot device’ the compresses the front suspension on starts to decrease wheelie when launching. On the final day we saw Ducati’s new aero fairing, a three-winged affair which was destroyed on his first lap out of the pits by Danilo Petrucci. Dovizioso suffered no similar fate, but Ducati will be after more data, of course, in Qatar in a few days’ time.

Maverick Vinales was the best non-Ducati rider on the final day of the test – 0.4 seconds from Petrucci – after topping day two. Despite his deficit to the headline time, the consensus amongst the riders seems to be that Vinales is one of – if not the – strongest on pace from this test, and this supports his positive view of Yamaha’s winter development.

Valentino Rossi’s report is less extreme but positive nonetheless, the Italian encouraged by the signs he sees from Yamaha itself, sensing that the factory is keen to return to the front on a regular basis this season. But still, The Doctor wants more from Yamaha, he doesn’t feel he has enough to win at the moment.

Across both factoy riders and Petronas SRT pilot Franco Morbidelli, the main complaint remains acceleration, with all three feeling they are still losing out on corner exit, especially in comparison with the Ducatis.

Most of the new additions to the M1 in this test were internal, and the riders were mostly reluctant to speak about that which we could not see. One thing which was visible on the M1 in Sepang was a new fairing, which came out of the box on Friday. Like Ducati, Yamaha will be after confirmation on their findings from Sepang in the final preseason test in Qatar, and Rossi confessed it is unlikely there will be anything new to try between now and March 10.

There were only two Hondas in the top ten on the final day in Malaysia, the LCR machines of Cal Crutchlow (6th, +0.541) and Takaaki Nakagami (9th, +0.909), whilst Marc Marquez could only manage 11th, 0.931 seconds off Petrucci.

After topping the first day with alarming speed and consistency, the blistering speed largely deserted Marquez for the remainder of the test, as he tried to evaluate the new items Honda had brought to Sepang despite his weakened physical condition.

It was always set up to be a tough test for Honda with three of their five riders injured, and Jorge Lorenzo to such an extent that he was absent, all of which made the work of Stefan Bradl all the more crucial, as the German test rider focussed largely on long runs. Despite their difficulties, which will largely remain unalleviated in Qatar (both for the test and the race), the feeling is the Honda is ready for winning, and the onus is still very much on the opposition to Marquez to make as much advantage in this period where he is not at 100%.

A twelfth place for Alex Rins on the third day seems initially quite underwhelming, but looking at the average times of all the riders, it is #42 who comes out on top. Suzuki had their engine design confirmed for 2019 before Sepang, so the test in Malaysia was just about the details. The biggest/most obvious additions to the GSX-RR in Sepang were a new aero fairing – essentially a slimmed-down version of what they had last year – and a new, shorter exhaust, designed to give the Suzuki a little more top end.

As well as the impressive pace shown throughout the three days by Rins, Joan Mir ended the test as the second-fastest rookie, in fifteenth place and 1.247 seconds from the top time.

KTM had a decent test, with an impressive time coming from Pol Espargaro on the first day, followed by good progress from both Johann Zarco and Miguel Oliveira on days two and three.

After the first day, Zarco was left wondering how long he might have to wait to receive the parts he felt he needed to allow the RC16 to suit him,  and on the final day he was the top KTM in 17th, a tenth clear of Espargaro (18th); 1.4 seconds off the top. This progress will come as a relief to Zarco, who up to the first day in Malaysia looked to be struggling to adapt to the Austrian bike.

A similar thing can be said for Oliveira, who was 19th and three tenths shy of Zarco. On the other hand, Hafizh Syahrin still seems to be struggling to adapt to the KTM after a year on the Yamaha and ended the test as the slowest of the full-time riders and down in 21st place, 2.5 seconds from Petrucci.

Aprilia decided, that 2018 did not happen when designing the 2019 RSGP, and it was a decision much to the delight of Aleix Espargaro, who was happy with the bike from when he jumped on it in the shakedown test preceding the official MotoGP test. There is still a lot of work to do in Noale for the engineers, but the seventh fastest time for Aleix on the final day shows they are in the right direction.

Unfortunately for Andrea Iannone the test was not as positive, as it was marred by a dental infection for the Italian. Either way the #29 was able to get his hands on the new RSGP for the first time after sampling the Aprilia itself for the first time back in November. He and his team will hope he can be back to full strength in time for the Qatar test in a few days.

Featured image courtesy of ducati.

Ducati became the first team to launch their 2019 MotoGP team last Friday. Having said goodbye to Jorge Lorenzo who has joined Honda, the Bologna factory welcomes Danilo Petrucci alongside Andrea Dovizioso for the 2019 MotoGP season. Petrux and Dovi were joined at the launch by Michele Pirro, who will once again be spearheading the Desmosedici’s development as Ducati’s MotoGP test rider in 2019.

There were a couple of things to note about the launch. The first was the livery. Two things were notable: Mission Winnow is now a major sponsor of the Italian marque’s MotoGP team, bringing Phillip Morris International back to the forefront of MotoGP (although they had maintained links with Ducati since losing their place on the Desmosedici’s fairing back in 2010 due to tobacco sponsorship regulations); and Audi Sport is now visible on the side of the GP19, a sign that Ducati is very much not for sale.

Another item of note in the launch was that Gigi Dall’Igna is not particularly impressed with MotoGP’s aero regulations. The Italian brought wings to MotoGP back in 2015 and ever since has kept Ducati at the forefront of aero development in prototype motorcycling’s premier class – and now in the production-based premier class, too, with the V4R. As such, Gigi would very much like for the regulations surrounding aerodynamics in MotoGP to be nice and relaxed, so he could turn the Desmosedici into an upside-down biplane – or triplane, or more. As it is, he and his Italian engineering squad are quite limited in what they can do with the aero – hence they looked at rear wings in Jerez, although to little success, as well as a FUBAR rear end, designed to help rear contact under braking.

Something Dall’Igna was happy about, though, was that they had managed to find more horsepower out of the L4 motor, which will no doubt delight the opposition. Whether this additional power will be sufficient enough to cause any significant problems with the electronics remains to be seen, but Ducati has proven itself the most effective user of the Magneti Marelli ECU since it became mandatory in 2016, so should problems arise you would expect them to be resolved fairly quickly.

The relationship between Andrea Dovizioso and Danilo Petrucci this year will be a fascinating one. Compared to the mutual co-existence between Jorge Lorenzo and Dovizioso from the last two years, the Ducati box could be comparatively cheery this term, with the two Italians already working well together – Petrucci is even using Dovizioso’s trainer and psychologist, as well as training motocross together with his 2019 teammate. A strong relationship with Petrucci could prove vital to Dovizioso’s title chances this year – he needs a wingman who is willing to ride shotgun rather than play team leader in a situation like Valencia 2017 if he is to take on Marc Marquez.

One thing that was missing from the team launch was the GP19 itself. A late GP18 resplendent in Ducati’s new livery was used, because they don’t want to advertise their new ideas for free to the likes of Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki and the likes. The first opportunity we will get to see the GP19 will be in Sepang, on February 1st for the pre-Sepang-test-test. Michele Pirro will ride the Desmosedici there, before Dovizioso and Petrucci get their hands on the latest edition of the Bologna Bullet for the first time on February 6th for the Sepang test ‘proper’.

The next team to launch their 2019 MotoGP programme is Repsol Honda, on January 23rd.

Image courtesy of Ducati Media