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With the first full day of MotoGP testing behind us, we can start to compare times between this year and last year. Conditions were broadly similar, though as the CRT bikes had done a few laps over the past couple of days, there was slightly more rubber on the track than at the end of January in 2012. But discarding the difference in conditions between the two tests, a pattern emerges from the relative improvement or decline of the various riders.

The rider who improved most between 2012 and 2013 is a bit of a surprise: Honda test rider Kousuke Akiyoshi made a huge leap of over 4 seconds between this year and last, but other than the occasional wildcard, Akiyoshi will take no part in 2013, and so not too much should be read into those times. 

Stefan Bradl made a huge leap forward: unsurprisingly, given that Sepang in January last year was the first time the German got to ride the 1000cc version of Honda's RC213V, having only tested the 800cc bike at Valencia three months' earlier. Much of the improvement comes from Bradl himself; the LCR Honda man has learned a lot in his rookie year, and will clearly be a factor in 2013. Cutting nearly 1.9 seconds off his time between 2012 and 2013 is a very positive achievement.

Overall, the Hondas did very well. Of the two MotoGP veterans on a Honda, both Dani Pedrosa and Alvaro Bautista cut nearly 0.9 seconds off their best time from the first day of testing last year. Much of that is down to the improvement in the RC213V: comparing Pedrosa's improvement (0.846) to Jorge Lorenzo's on the Yamaha (0.492) suggests that Honda has found a few tenths in the bike, most probably thanks to radically cutting down on the chatter that plagued the machine last year.

Much interest will go out to Valentino Rossi's improvement: his switch to Yamaha saw him lap 0.8 faster than on the Ducati in 2012. Intriguingly, this is almost exactly the same amount which Andrea Dovizioso has lost (0.784) by switching in the opposite direction, abandoning the M1 at the Tech 3 Yamaha team to join the factory Ducati team. Judging  by Nicky Hayden's times, the Ducati has made no progress, the American nearly two tenths slower than last year. By comparison, the Yamaha has clearly improved: Lorenzo is nearly half a second quicker, while Cal  Crutchlow is over a third of a second faster than he was at the end of last year.

Biggest loser of the day was Ben Spies, who was nearly three seconds slower than in 2012, but Spies is coming off a shoulder injury, and did not spend much time looking for a fast lap. Looking at slower riders also offers an interesting comparison between the Ducatis and the CRT machines: Karel Abraham lost 1.9 seconds by switching to an Aprilia ART machine, Hector Barbera is 2.7 seconds slower on the FTR Kawasaki in 2013.

Comparison of times from Sepang 1 test: Day 1 2013 vs Day 1 2012

Negative number mean rider was faster in 2013, positive number means rider was slower in 2013

Comparing the last visit of the riders to Sepang to today's times provides a slightly different perspective. The biggest improvement between FP3 (chosen because it is after the riders had had some time on the track) was for Valentino Rossi, who was 1.5 seconds quicker on the Yamaha than he was on the Ducati. By that part of the season, however, Rossi's motivation was starting to flag, which could explain Rossi's lagging performance on the weekend of the 2012 race. Stefan Bradl holds on to his clear improvement, over a second quicker than in 2012, while both Aspar ART machines also made a decent step forward. The Yamahas have made less progress since October: Lorenzo is just under two tenths quicker than FP3, Crutchlow just over a tenth. Dani Pedrosa, meanwhile was on a roll in 2012, and had nearly as fast as the time he set today. This could be a sign of much more to come from Pedrosa, worrying for his opponents given he is already the fastest man on track.

Comparison of Sepang 1 Day 1 2013 times vs race weekend 2012, FP3:

Negative number mean rider was faster in 2013, positive number means rider was slower in 2013

While all of the media attention is going out to Marc Marquez - and rightly so, given the Spaniard's astonishing pace - the Repsol Honda man is overshadowing the debut made by Bradley Smith. In comparison to Marquez, Smith's debut aboard the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha looks decidedly modest, but the question is just how fair it is to compare Smith to a rider who is clearly the exception, rather than the rule. If we take Marquez out of the equation, a better comparison suggests itself: between Smith's first full day on the Yamaha M1, and Stefan Bradl's time on the Honda at Sepang in 2012.

This comparison is more flattering for Smith: given that the young Briton had only a few laps on a greasy track at Valencia in November, this is his first real opportunity to ride the M1. Sepang 2012 was also Bradl's first chance to ride the Honda 1000, though he had had a full test at Valencia aboard the 800cc machine. Smith ended day 1 at Sepang 0.2 faster than Bradl did last year, though Smith's gap to the front is 0.2 larger than Bradl's was in 2012. But being 2 seconds off the pace at the first Sepang test looks like being just about on target for Smith on the Yamaha. If his development as a rider in his rookie year follows that of Bradl, he should be fairly competitive by the end of the season.

Comparing Rookies: Bradley Smith's first day at Sepang 1 vs Stefan Bradl's first day at Sepang 1 in 2012:

Naturally, all these comparisons, though intriguing, come with many caveats and provisos. Conditions were not comparable, nor were the bikes, yet still there are a few patterns which emerge. Just how well those patterns hold up to scrutiny will be tested over the coming season.

The first day of the extra two-day test for the CRT teams laid on to allow the teams using the new Magneti Marelli spec ECU has been almost entirely wasted. A lack of parts and above all, a lack of data with the new system meant that the day was spent mostly in the garage, with very few laps turned out on the track. 

Only CAME Ioda's Danilo Petrucci got in any serious track time, the Italian posting a total of 27 laps. All of those laps were set without any assistance from the electronics, however: with no data, the team had no base set up to work from, and Petrucci was lapping without any electronic aid.  "It's really hard to ride a bike without any electronic controls," Petrucci posted on Twitter afterwards, a fact that is borne out by his times. Petrucci's fastest lap was a 2'06.841, two seconds slower than his best time from the race weekend at Sepang, and four seconds behind the best CRT time set back in October of last year.

Petrucci's problems illustrate that this test was more of a shakedown than a genuine test. Speaking to MotoGP.com, Colin Edwards described the state of play as succinctly as usual. "It runs and it burns gasoline," he said of his FTR Kawasaki, but even that was only just true. Edwards had only gotten out for a single hurried lap at the very end of the day, as he and teammate Claudio Corti had sat around all day while his team assembled the bikes with parts that had not been delivered to the team in time to be fitted at the workshop. Once he did get out, he reported that there was still masses of work to do to get the electronics working, reporting a sputter at the bottom end off the throttle.

The Blusens Avintia team had similar issues, despite the bike already having been run on the dyno at their home base in Barcelona. Problems with the wiring loom meant the bike kept cutting out, preventing Hector Barbera and Hiroshi Aoyama from posting many laps. When the bike was running, it was clear that a lot of work still needed to be done on getting the fueling right, before the teams can start work on finetuning the electronics.

Hiroshi Aoyama also spent some time testing the wrist he injured in a motocross training crash a few weeks ago. The wrist was still painful, leaving the Japanese rider to assess the condition of his wrist day-by-day. Aoayama is uncertain of completing the test.

The outing for the CRT teams with the new Magneti Marelli electronics package can hardly be viewed as a test. It was more of an initial shakedown, trying to iron out the problems which arise whenever a system is tried for the first time. On the one hand, it is a good thing that the teams have the extra two days of testing to do the initial set up work on the spec electronics package. But on the other hand, having the package available only ahead of the first test at Sepang puts the CRT teams on the back foot, further increasing their disadvantage over the factory prototypes. A longer lead time would have given the teams more time to do shakedown tests of their own, to iron out the inevitable glitchs. Now, they are doing it in public view, and with just a few short weeks before the season starts.

The CRT teams using the spec electronics package have a mountain of work ahead of them. Colin Edwards told MotoGP.com "If we had to race tomorrow, we'd be in really bad shape, so we need to get to that point." Getting to that point requires a huge amount of work gathering and analyzing data, and testing the bikes out on track. As Danilo Petrucci said on Twitter, the team have "no base setup, and about 15,000 numbers to write inside the ECU for complete control." Despite that, the new ECU should be a step forward in the long run. It was "a small step forwards, coming from Bosch, but it's really too early to say," Petrucci told MotoGP.com. The Magneti Marelli ECU may be better in the long run, but in the short term, things are going to be tough.

The prospects of both MotoGP and World Superbikes visiting Wales took a step closer yesterday. Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta and Events Managing Director Javier Alonso flew to the UK earlier this week for a series of meetings about the proposed Circuit of Wales, a new facility that is to be built near Ebbw Vale, in South Wales. The Dorna bosses met with several key figures involved in the project, including Lord Kinnock, former UK Labour Party leader and now ambassador for the circuit, and Welsh Minister for Business, Enterprise, Technology and Science Edwina Hart.

Ezpeleta and Alonso also met with media, including Motorcycle News and local news organizations. Ezpeleta expressed how impressed he had been with the plans for the facility, which include an FIM and FIA approved race track, a motocross track, a karting track, as well a technology park, hotel facilities, and a motor sports racing academy, aimed at providing training for young riders and drivers. Having another track in the UK was a positive thing for racing, Ezpeleta told the Gwent Gazette. "“For me, I will say that out of all the races we have in the year, for us and all the people involved, we feel British people know much more about racing," the Dorna boss said. Once the track receives planning permission - a hurdle the facility still has to clear - the track could be ready to host a MotoGP or World Superbike round as early as 2015, Ezpeleta told MCN's Matt Birt. 

Also present at the presentation were WSBK men Leon Haslam and Chaz Davies, both of whom were similarly enthusiastic about the circuit. Haslam has been providing input on the design of the circuit from a rider perspective, at the request of the people behind the project. The nature of the terrain - hilly, with a fair amount of elevation differences on the site - meant that the track will be 'fast and flowing' according to Haslam, who compared the track to circuits such as Portimao and Istanbul. Davies was similarly enthusiastic. Both Davies and Haslam have had to travel abroad to train from a very young age, but having a race track near by (Davies lives an hour from the proposed circuit) would have made it a lot easier for them as young riders, and would help breed a new generation of British riders, the two men told the press, helping to boost the profile of the sport. "We have football academies, and centres of excellence for our successful sports, but motor sport hasn't had that in the UK," Davies told Wales Online.

Comparisons could also be drawn to the Motorland Aragon circuit. Like Motorland Aragon, the Circuit of Wales was built in a region that is economically deprived, and is aimed at providing long-term support to the local economy. The addition of a technology center, business units, and an educational facility are all part of providing a robust infrastructure in the area. Both regions are geographically isolated, though Ebbw Vale is closer to large urban centers such as Bristol or Cardiff than Alcañiz is to Zaragoza or Barcelona. The development could bring some 9,000 jobs to the region, Ezpeleta told the South Wales Argus, and a MotoGP race could be expected to bring in some £2.5 million per event.

Javier Alonso was keen to draw parallels with the positive experiences of the Motorland Aragon circuit. The lessons learned from Aragon were applicable to South Wales as well. "It's not just about racing, but about providing industry and improving education," Alonso told Wales Online.

The Circuit of Wales project has deep roots within the motorcycle racing community. Former HRC communications director Chris Herring is a member of the team running the Heads of the Valleys Development Company, the organization behind the Circuit of Wales. That company also has a stake in FTR, the engineering company responsible for the FTR chassis being used in alll three Grand Prix classes. And the circuit is to be built in part by FCC Construcción, a Spanish company who were also responsible for the rebuilding work at the Jerez track in the winter of 2001/2002, which helped create the iconic "flying saucer" VIP lounge which straddles the front straight of the Spanish circuit.

The cost of that work had been a source of problems for the Jerez circuit. FCC had gone unpaid for a very long time, CIRJESA, the Spanish company running the circuit, even being forced into administration over non-payment of the sums owed to FCC and Serviobras for the work done at Jerez. 

That Suzuki is considering a return to MotoGP in 2014 is well-documented, with talks still ongoing about the terms on which the Japanese factory will make a return. More surprising is the news from Italy, reported on GPOne.com, that Davide Brivio, former team manager of Valentino Rossi, is in line to manage the team running Suzuki's return.

According to reports both on GPOne.com and Moto.it, in a story by Giovanni Zamagni, the news was broken in the Italian TV show Griglia di Partenza (Starting Grid), by Max Temporali. Suzuki, it is reported, will make a return to MotoGP in 2014, with a team to be based in Italy and run by Brivio.

The news is unexpected. At Ducati's launch at Wrooom in January, Carmelo Ezpeleta had already explained that factories wishing to enter MotoGP would not be allowed to run their own teams, but would have to link up with existing teams in the paddock. That decision, made to ensure factories commit to MotoGP for the long term, and not just for a single year, was widely interpreted to mean that Suzuki would make their return to MotoGP with the Aspar squad, who will be competing in 2013 as a CRT team with Aprilia once again. Aspar has a some history with Suzuki: when Juan 'Aspar' Martinez was considering entering MotoGP, alongside his already highly successful 250cc and 125cc teams, the Spaniard was in intensive negotiations with Suzuki to run at least one satellite bike in the Aspar team. Furthermore, Aspar rider Randy De Puniet has been secured as a test rider for Suzuki (sources in France suggest that De Puniet has multiple tests with Suzuki lined up this year), making Aspar taking on the Suzuki team a logical next step.

But Italian media believes otherwise. They have Brivio running the Suzuki operation from the Lombardy region of Northern Italy, which is also home to Yamaha's MotoGP team just outside Monza. According to GPOne.com, multiple sources inside the paddock have confirmed that Brivio has been approached for the job.

Brivio is an experienced team manager. Brivio was instrumental in bringing Valentino Rossi to Yamaha, and acted as the Italian's team manager throughout his period at the Japanese factory. Brivio left Yamaha along with Rossi, turning instead to working with Rossi's VR46 merchandise and clothing operation. Despite Brivio's close relationship with Rossi - he was present at every race during Rossi's period with Ducati, despite not having an official function inside Ducati Corse - Rossi is not thought to have any involvement with Brivio's decision to run the Suzuki team. 

An announcement is not believed to be imminent, as testing is still well underway - Nobuatsu Aoki is testing Suzuki's new inline four cylinder machine, first spied in May last year - and Suzuki needs approval for their entry. Suzuki had been waiting for a stable set of rules to be announced for MotoGP, and with Dorna announcing that the rules already agreed for 2014 will remain unchanged for three years, 2014 is the first opportunity for them to make a return. Suzuki representatives had met with Dorna at the Brno round of MotoGP last year, where they had asked to be allowed to enter for just a single season. That request was denied, Suzuki being told that they had to sign a contract for three years if they wanted to make a comeback to the paddock. It now appears that Suzuki is ready to make that commitment.

If Suzuki do make a return to MotoGP, the seats will be much in demand among the riders. Ben Spies had already been linked with Suzuki, having raced for the manufacturer in the US for several years before heading to World Superbikes and then MotoGP. And Cal Crutchlow has also made no secret of his desire for a factory ride. That rules out both Honda and Yamaha, where the factory riders are locked in for at least two seasons, leaving Ducati and Suzuki as potential options for 2014. And with Randy De Puniet testing the new Suzuki, the Frenchman will have some claim to continue to develop and race the bike when it enters the series.