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The three official MotoGP test days in Sepang didn't start the way Alex Rins would've expected. After lapping without any particular setbacks on two of the three Shakedown days, the Spanish rider's schedule was disrupted by the gusts of wind blowing across the Malaysian track. These conditions convinced Rins to end his day prematurely, relegating him to a 14th place, with a delay of 1" from the best time set by his teammate, Fabio Quartararo, the leader in the standings, ahead of Marc and Alex Marquez.
"Honestly, the strong wind today changed the plans a bit. We had managed to test a few things during the shakedown. We worked a bit on the set-up and tried some new elements, like a new chassis with a new swingarm. The chassis didn't perform as well as we had hoped during the shakedown, but Yamaha managed to fine-tune it and, today, we planned to test this slightly modified chassis again, a fairing with different wings. But the wind didn't allow us to do that, so we were forced to revise the plan and try the three different types of front tires that Michelin brought. One of these tires is similar to the soft one we have here, while the other two are those with different structure, designed for 2026," the Yamaha rider explained.
Despite the disappointment due to the change in schedule, Rins tried to make the most of the day, knowing that he had two more days of testing at his disposal.
"Besides testing the tires, which we wanted to do on the last day, I didn't manage to do much. I first went with a medium rear tire to check the track conditions, since it had rained a little yesterday, and to make sure there was no alarm on the bike. Then I mounted the soft on both the front and rear. I lapped with the bike I used to complete the Barcelona test, which has a slightly different chassis than the one I used during the season, and I didn't mount any qualifying tires because it wasn't the best time to do so," he said, explaining the work carried out on the track today. "Otherwise, everything is going well. We'll test the chassis tomorrow to see if it'll work better with some set up. If not, we'll test the fairing with two wings instead of three to see how it goes."
On the subject of changes, Alex commented on how Yamaha's approach to testing has changed compared to the past.
"The way of testing has changed. We have a lot of new elements to test, which means Yamaha has worked very hard over the winter. But, last year, we probably would've continued testing even with wind, which doesn't make a lot of sense to me, because you have to be precise when you test important things and, with the wind, you can never be it," he stressed. "In addition to that, with the Pramac team, we also have two more bikes, which brings us more information, and that's very positive."
It was precisely the wind that the Yamaha rider said was the reason for all the falls on Day 1.
"Honestly, we witnessed almost no falls during the shakedown. I think it was because of the wind, which was really strong. The critical points, where there were more gusts of wind, were at turns four, five, nine, eleven, and thirteen, after the change in direction. That's the point where Acosta fell. I don't know if it happened because of the wind or not, but it was strange," he commented. "As a rider, it makes me a bit angry that I couldn't set a better time by doing a time attack and that I was only able to do forty-one laps, having to wait a long time for the wind to drop. With these gusts, besides not being able to test the material, it was risky to put on a qualifying tire and it was of no use for me to take a risk to try to set a time. So, we decided to stop when we saw that the wind was increasing, also because we didn't have tires ready, and we should've warmed them up. I think that was the right choice."
But Quartararo had a different opinion. He decided to go ahead with the program regardless of the wind.
"We had the same things to test on both sides of the garage. I don't want to criticize Fabio at all. He has his own way of working, and he tested both the chassis and the aerodynamics, but it didn't make much sense to me," he admitted. "That's why I decided to stop, along with my whole team. I also talked with Meregalli and Bartolini to see what was best to do. Looking at the times now, we could have waited until the end of the day and mounted a tire, but why risk it?"
Asked about the V4 and when he'd be able to test the bike with the new engine, Rins concluded by saying: "They haven't given us any dates. We asked, but they prefer to keep things separate so that we riders don't waste time thinking about when we can test it. According to what they told us, they'll introduce it when it does better than the current bike. In the end, having a V4 engine isn't mandatory. Honda has it too, but we have more or less the same problems."
