A tale of two bikes at Sepang International Circuit (SIC) for the 2023 MotoGP Winter Trials. A refreshing after almost two decades of MotoGP competition with more than just Driver, Team and Constructor titles from the word. MotoGP, but also with the World Superbike championship crown.
The other team, with a long racing heritage, has just returned to the paddock with not only the factory team but also a newly formed satellite team. We are referring to Ducati and Aprilia, striding at SIC with new racing machines, new aerodynamic packages and in some cases new riders.
Like last season, Ducati dominated the winter test table with the factory and three satellite teams while Aprilia appeared with the Factory Racing team as well as the Cryptodata RNF Racing Team. Speaking with RNF Racing Malaysia team principal Datuk Razlan Razali, he said paultan.org the Aprilia RS-GPs driven by Miguel Oliviera and Raul Fernandez are essentially from last year’s last race.
“We’ve received some upgrades in terms of aerodynamics and some other parts, but they’re still the same bikes as the factory team used,” says Razlan. This is evidenced by the posted times of the three days of the Winter Test, including wet Saturday afternoons and Sunday evenings.
Oliviera, making her first appearance for RNF Racing after leaving KTM Tech 3, achieved a fastest time of 1:58,992. Meanwhile, teammate Fernandez, also switching to RNF Racing from Tech 3, posted a time of 1:58,710, leaving the duo comfortably in the middle of the group in terms of time.
The Aprilia factory group, which spent the first two days of the Winter Test overshadowed by the satellite group, finally got into action on Tuesday, with Maverick Vinales posting 1:58.03 while Aleix
Espargaro finished sixth fastest of the day at 1:58,307.
The number was enough to make Vinales the third fastest on Sunday night as the proceedings drew to a close. In the Ducati camp, dominance was the order of the day, with Mooney VR46 Racing satellite driver Luca Marini topping the test results with a time of 1:57.889.
Following Marini is Francesco Bagnaia, 2022 MotoGP World Champion, of Ducati Lenovo, second fastest with a time of 1:57,969. In fourth place is his Ducati Lenovo teammate, Enea “The Beast” Bastianini, with a time of 1:58,149 while Jorge “The Marinator” Martin is fifth with a time of 1:58,204.
Ducati Desmosedicis fills the remaining nine spots on the test bench with Team Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez coming in tenth at 1:58,666. The other Japanese factory team, Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP and running without the support of a satellite team for the first time since forever, was only able to overtake former world champion Fabio Quartararo with a score of 1:58,943 .
It should be noted that 20 of the 22 riders on this season’s MotoGP grid posted extra lap times of 1:59, with the exceptions being Takaaki Nakagami of LCR Honda Idemistu and Augusto Fernandez of GasGas Factory Racing Tech 3, just half a second behind. . behind. The truth is that the Winter Test is more for mills and racers, as test times do not reflect race season performance.
Di Giannantonio, Racing Gresini
However, three days of testing at SIC has shown that many factories are taking aerodynamics seriously with the wide variety of wing shapes and spoilers on display. As Aliex Espargaro said during the press conference, “Today we tried two spoilers, one that gave me more cornering speed, the other that helped me go very fast in a straight line. If we can combine the two then we will have a strong package this year.”
For now, although Ducati is conquering them all in 2022, this year’s riders are all confident, though Quartararo says he has mixed feelings about his Yamaha YZR-M1 though. began testing with the new set of tires, declaring it a “disaster”.
This year’s MotoGP season sees the launch of the Sprint race on Saturday, which kicks off at 15:00 local time, giving fans a total of 42 races to watch throughout the year. . These half-distance races with the offered half-points will not affect the starting line for the main grand prix.
For the racing season that begins in Portimao, Portugal on March 23, expect Bagnaia to go up against challengers to the world champion’s crown, with his strongest challenger coming from Bastianini. Based on the performance at Sepang, it is expected that VR46’s Marini could upset the apple cart, as well as spoilers from the likes of Maverick and Marquez cannot be ruled out.
