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'Italians do it better', when it comes to motorcycles, the answer is a resounding ‘yes’. With the first 3 days of testing at Sepang done and dusted, the Italian manufacturers started the season with their heads held high in Malaysia. Ducati above all, but also Aprilia, with the rest of the manufacturers playing catch-up, both on the list in terms of times and their technological innovations.
One swallow doesn't make a summer and a handful of days of testing doesn't decide a season, but starting off on the right foot is useful and should never be taken for granted, and the men from Borgo Panigale and Noale certainly did that. It’s all a bit of a warning for their opponents who must now find themselves playing catch-up with less than a month to work at home and two more days of testing in Portimao (11 and 12 March) before the start.
In the meantime, let's analyse bike by bike what we learnt from the Sepang tests.
Ducati: when a good day starts in the morning
We already knew that the GP22 was the benchmark in the category and in fact first Bezzecchi and then Marini showed how fast it still is. To complete the 1-2-3, Martin took care of proceedings on the second day, so as to have no doubts about which bike was in charge on the track. Di Giannantonio also showed his potential and Alex Marquez soon forgot about the Honda thanks to the Borgo Panigale treatment.
The important thing, however, was to see how the new bike performed. Second quickest time and Bagnaia's words demonstrate that the GP23 is already at the levels of last year's bike and that, above all, it still has room for improvement. It wasn't necessarily a foregone conclusion and it took a little work in the factory team box on the last day to get the result. Pecco, as world champion, took charge of development and with Dall'Igna and his men he put things right. Furthermore, the collaboration with Bastianini is going swimmingly and, of all the bikes seen, the new Ducati seems to be the only one that is already ready if the first race were to be held tomorrow.
The mistakes of the beginning of 2022 served as a lesson and probably there will be other new developments in Portimao.
Aprilia: winds of change to reach the top
In Noale they are putting their foot on the accelerator, especially as regards aerodynamic development. There was a lot of new development on the RS-GP and the riders are also waiting for another engine evolution for the next tests. In any case, Aprilia is making quite a statement.
Vinales and Aleix Espargarò constantly appeared in the top positions, Oliveira (on last year's bike) showed some leaps and Raul Fernandez seemed to be enjoying himself on the Italian bike.
In its first season without concessions and with a satellite team, at Noale they will have to prove that they know how to do their homework well in order to shine on the track. The beginning is promising, and the aim is to get even closer to Ducati.
Yamaha: lots of new stuff, but the stopwatch dampened the enthusiasm
Until the afternoon of the last day, the faces in the Yamaha garage were smiling. Finally there was no shortage of new stuff, the engine was going well and the times weren't bad. Then the test of the time attack, the flying lap, and aches and pains began to appear. Because the M1 2023 seems to have revealed a significant weakness.
"I felt like I was going fast, then I looked at the stopwatch and it wasn't like that at all" was Quartararo's disconsolate explanation. Sunday afternoon, in qualifying configuration, the difference between Fabio's best time and Morbidelli's was 43 thousandths, their positions 19th and 20th, a sign that both riders came up against a limit on the bike.
What was it? The problem is that they had no answers and the engineers will have to find them quickly. Also because qualifying this year will be valid for two races: the Sprint Race on Saturday and the normal one on Sunday.
A pity, because otherwise the Yamaha seemed to be a clear step forward from the 2022 one.
KTM: the RC16 is a puzzle still without a solution
Much more was expected from the new RC16. In the Shakedown Pedrosa showed good potential, but when the riders arrived it seemed to have disappeared. The new KTM has many new features and the problem seems to be putting all the pieces of the mosaic in the right place.
At Sepang the riders failed to do so and remained in the middle of the standings (Pol Espargarò 13th, Binder 14th, Miller 18th). The feeling is that the RC16 is not that slow, but still needs a lot of work to make it work.
Changing 3 out of 4 riders was a risk, also because Jack needs time to get used to the new bike and Augusto Fernandez is a rookie. In the long run, it might pay off, but in Portimao it will be necessary to work overtime to find a solution to the problem.
Honda: a lot of tests and few results, Marquez is a test rider
It would have been naive to think that the HRC technicians had transformed the ugly duckling into a swan over the winter, but Honda did not come out well from these tests. Leaving aside the hopeful declarations of Mir and Rins not confirmed by their performances and the tests by Nakagami who is still not in perfect physical condition after the operations on his hand, we need to focus on Marquez.
Who had many bikes in the pits which, however, in the end looked very much - perhaps too much - the same as the one we had already seen in Valencia. Marc always sets a good time (10th, i.e. the best of those not on an Italian bike) but his job was as a test rider. Ken Kawauchi, the new Technical Manager coming from Suzuki, wants to figure out what's wrong and to do so he made the Spaniard try anything, even a bike without aerodynamic appendages.
It's understandable, because to get out of a deadlock you need to find cornerstones, a foundation on which to build and at the moment there don't seem to be any. The feeling is that they are working more for 2024 than for 2023, with the hope of being able to find a solution during the season.
The good news is that Marquez's physical condition is good, for the moment he's making the best of a bad situation and then we'll see. The impression is that the road is still long and uphill.
