Today and tomorrow at Jerez there will be an important exam not only for Yamaha with Toprak Razgatlioglu and Cal Crutchlow, but also for Honda, which will entrust Stefan Bradl with a rather demanding test with the chassis built by Kalex.
The impression is that HRC commissioned the new chassis some time ago with the aim of pushing the development of the RC213-V now that it has two riders in its ranks from Suzuki, a bike judged easy to ride.
Initially the new chassis was to be developed during the official MotoGP test on the Monday following the Spanish Grand Prix at the same circuit, but the poor results from Honda in 2023 made it necessary to speed up the process, even delaying the production of the Moto2 prototypes, of which Kalex is the main supplier.
If the result of the test is positive, the chassis will be sent directly to Austin to be evaluated by Marc Marquez, even if the new MotoGP format, with practice limited virtually only to Fridays, and moreover aimed at entering Q2, does not allow for much time for development tests.
In addition to the two Japanese manufacturers, KTM with Dani Pedrosa and Aprilia with Lorenzo Savadori will be at Jerez. It is difficult to know whether, in addition to Dani, KTM will send the German rider Jonas Folger, who joined the test team this year and who will replace the injured Pol Espargaró in the satellite team of the Austrian manufacturer, GasGas Tech3, starting from Austin weekend.
On the other hand, there will be no Ducati with Michele Pirro who is planning a test in preparation for the Italian GP at Mugello right on the Tuscan circuit or at Misano.