Latest News

After the MotoGP class kicked off the 2013 preseason at Sepang, testing season is now well and truly opened. From Tuesday, the Moto2 and Moto3 teams assemble at Valencia for their first group test of the year, a test which should provide a few clues to the way the 2013 might develop, while raising more questions to be answered at the following test next week at Jerez.

It is not the first time on the track for everyone, however. A gaggle of KTM-mounted Moto3 teams have already posted laps at Almeria, joined there by the reigning Moto3 champion Sandro Cortese on his Kalex Moto2 machine, while another group of Moto3 boys had a shakedown test at Cartagena. As neither Almeria nor Cartagena, both located in Southern Spain, appear on the Grand Prix calendar, the lessons learned will be useful, but limited, the bikes still needing work once the teams arrive at Valencia for the three-day test, from 12th to 14th of February.

What was apparent from the test at Almeria was that Maverick Viñales will be fast. The JHK T-Shirt LaGlisse team were the only team to release times from Almeria, and Viñales was well under the lap record with a 1'39.1, three tenths quicker than he went at the same circuit back in November, the first time he got to ride the factory KTM machine. To try to put that time in some kind of perspective, Jonas Folger posted a fastest lap of 1'40.1 at Almeria back in November.

Comparing times at Valencia will also be difficult. Though a list of times will be published at the end of the day, its accuracy will be subject to question. For some inexplicable reason, the teams will be riding without official transponders and timekeeping, meaning that times will be collated based on what the teams say they did. Though usually in the same ballpark as the times the riders actually post, teams have many reasons to either exaggerate or understate their times. Such misstatements are never wildly off the mark, however, so some usable data will proceed from it. [Editor's note, 12th February: it appears we were wrong. Dorna are providing official timing for the Moto2 and Moto3 test, so timing will be accurate. Follow it on the official MotoGP.com website.]

The two big questions to be answered in Moto2 are who can challenge 2012 runner up Pol Espargaro, and what effect the new combined rider/weight limit will have on leveling out the playing field for the heavier riders. The latter question is of some significance for the former; Scott Redding looked strong throughout the 2012 season, but the Marc VDS Racing rider clearly struggled at tracks where hard acceleration was key. Hampered by his size and extra body weight, Redding was on average 5km/h down on top speed along Motegi's long back straight, something which staying with the front runners very difficult, despite matching their sector times around the remainder of the circuit.

The weight increase will make things more difficult for the lighter riders - for exactly why, see the excellent explanation of the issues involved over on the Live From Pit Lane site, run by Marc VDS press chief Ian Wheeler - as finding the best place to stow the extra weight is a problem. So a significant part of the test for riders such as Mika Kallio, Pol Espargaro (at least, to some extent) and Toni Elias will be taken up by experimenting with placing ballast. At the other end of the scale, heavier riders like Redding are investing in the lightest possible helmets, leathers and boots to keep the extra weight they still carry down to a minimum.

After a standout season in 2012, Pol Espargaro will start this year as hot favorite. Espargaro will want to stamp his authority on the class from the very start, and hope to leave as the fastest man. With his HP Tuenti Pons team virtually unchanged since last season, all the building blocks are in place to excel. Leading the chase for Espargaro will be Thomas Luthi, the Swiss rider's situation similarly identical to 2012. With the weight situation equalized, at least in part, Scott Redding will start the year with his best chance of being competitive. Valencia is not one of the tracks where Redding suffered most with his weight disadvantage, so the effects of the equalization will not be immediately clear. Julian Simon will be another rider to watch, the Spaniard having swapped a Suter for the Kalex of the Italtrans team. Simon was very quick at the test in Valencia last season, and should be fast again this week. 

Ant West could be one rider who could throw up a few surprises, the Australian having gelled with his QMMF Speed Up machine towards the end of the season. If he can be quick out of the box at Valencia, he might finally get his season off to a strong start, and be competitive all year long. Then there's the usual suspects: men like Alex de Angelis, Mattia Pasini and Simone Corsi, who are often fast, but also lack consistency. They will have to get a good test under their belts to get their season off on the right foot.

There will be much interest in the Moto2 rookies as well, especially on Sandro Cortese. The German arrives in the class as reigning Moto3 champion, in a strongly-backed team aboard a Kalex. This will be the first time we get to see how well Moto3 operates as a feeder class for Moto2, after the first season of the four-stroke Moto3 class. Others arrive with him: Cortese's former teammate Danny Kent joins Frenchman Louis Rossi at Tech 3, giving the team an all-rookie line up. They will have their work cut out, aboard a bike which has a distinct disadvantage over the rest.

In the Moto3 class, Maverick Viñales is the man to beat. After a tough year chasing the KTMs on the underpowered FTR Honda, Viñales now has full factory backing from KTM. His direct competitors will also be on factory KTMs, Luis Salom prime among them. The battle between the two Spaniards could get very tense, both having proven to be very hotheaded young men in 2012. Calmness and concentration will be needed this season, but that is a quality which is less easy to measure on a timesheet. They face more Spanish competition in the form of Alex Rins, the youngster who showed flashes of brilliance in his first season in the class, as well as Alex Marquez, brother of the shockingly talented Moto2 champion and MotoGP rookie Marc. The Italians are well represented too: promising youngster Francesco Bagnaia joins Romano Fenati at the Team Italia squad, and Fenati will be expected to make a step forward in his second full season in Grand Prix.

A lot of the interest in Moto3 will come from the gaggle of youngsters moving up from the Red Bull Rookies and the Spanish championship. German riders Florian Alt and Philipp Oettl are expected to do well, as is Lorenzo Baldasssarri and young Belgian rider Livio Loi. Loi will be testing with the Marc VDS Racing team, but the Belgian rider will have to wait until the Jerez round to make his Moto3 debut, as he only turns 16, the minimum age for Moto3, a few days before the Spanish GP.

One final rider to watch at the test will be Maverick Viñales' teammate Ana Carrasco. Several females riders have had a shot at Grand Prix racing, but few have made much impression. Carrasco could be the first to earn a regular place in the paddock; unlike many of the female riders which have proceeded her, the young Spaniard is just 16 years old. She has already made good progression, improving her best time at Almeria, set in November of last year, by over two seconds. A time of 1'41.8 puts her on course to be fighting for points once she settles in to Moto3. That would be a boost not just for her, but for all women riders, and open the door a little for an increase in the number of females in the sport.

The weather for the test is looking positive. No rain is expected, and the temperatures should be positively balmy by the afternoon. The only worrying factor is the wind: very strong today, as the teams were setting up, the wind can cause real problems for both tire and track temperatures at the Valencia circuit. It will die down a little as the week progresses, with the best weather expected on the final day of the test on Thursday.

Below is the testing schedule for Moto2 and Moto3:

When Suzuki left MotoGP at the end of 2011, it was with a promise to return in 2014. Since then, there have been a string of news stories pointing to an imminent return, with reports gaining a massive boost once (clearly leaked) 'spy shots' of the brand new inline four MotoGP bike Suzuki is working on emerged.

But bringing Suzuki back into the fold has not proved to be easy. Hamamatsu bigwigs visited the Brno round of MotoGP in August last year to talk to Dorna boss Carmelo Ezpeleta about a possible return, and also to clear up confusion which then existed about the rules. The outcome of those talks was not as Suzuki had hoped: Suzuki had told Ezpeleta that they were only interested in signing a one-year contract, Ezpeleta refused, saying Suzuki must sign up for a minimum of three years, to ensure some kind of continuity; the Japanese factory also stated categorically that they would not make a return if a spec ECU with spec software were to be implemented, Ezpeleta reiterated his position that the Grand Prix Commission would implement rules as they saw fit, regardless of what Suzuki felt about it. The spec ECU - at least in terms of software - was later dropped, removing one obstacle, but Suzuki have still to commit to a return to MotoGP.

Suzuki bosses were in the MotoGP paddock once again on Wednesday, holding meetings with senior Dorna executives about testing through 2014. Dorna once again told Suzuki they were welcome to join in any of the tests organized for the MotoGP teams throughout the year. Dorna Events Managing Director Javier Alonso told the (Dorna-owned and run) MotoGP.com website that "the doors are open for them".

There are, however, conditions. Suzuki is only welcome if they enter the championship using an existing team. In practice, that would mean using the infrastructure of one of the teams already on the grid - the Aspar team is the hot favorite, given their past talks with the factory, and the fact that Aspar rider Randy de Puniet is close to signing a testing deal with the factory - rather than creating a team structure from the ground up for their MotoGP effort. Suzuki would prefer the latter - owning and managing your own team allows for a lot more control - but Dorna is siding clearly with the teams. "We commit with the teams that are here with us today," Alonso told MotoGP.com, "they will keep the right to continue to be here."

Suzuki has not committed to plans to test - though reports from Japanese journalists such as Akira Nishimura are promising - and part of this ambivalence is one of the reasons for the conditions being put in place. Suzuki have a history of falling short of their commitments to the series, and Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta is believed to have felt betrayed by Suzuki, after the factory reneged on a number of previous agreements. When the Rookie Rule was introduced in 2009, Suzuki asked for and were given an exemption, allowing them to sign Alvaro Bautista for the 2010 season. When it became clear that Suzuki were struggling with engine durability in 2010, the first year of the durability rules, Suzuki asked for and were granted an increase in their allocation, from 6 engines to 9 engines. The following year, despite promises that they would field a two-man team, they cut back to just a single rider, leaving the 2011 grid at just 17 men.

Dorna is keen to avoid future instability caused by factories such as Suzuki - or Kawasaki, when the factory withdrew at the end of the 2008 season - and is therefore looking to consolidate the grid using the existing teams, and offering the infrastructure of those teams to factories who may wish to enter the series. The same system works well in World Superbikes, where six factories participate, but only one through its own team structure. Both BMW and Honda have made further moves towards the factory-supported private team system in WSBK this year, BMW withdrawing their factory team, and now funding and preparing their WSBK effort through the BMW Goldbet Italia team, while HRC has stepped up backing for Ten Kate, turning the Pata Honda into a fully factory-supported effort through the Dutch Ten Kate organization.

Will Suzuki acquiesce to Dorna's demands and enter MotoGP in 2014 on the terms issued by the series organizer? Official statements are hard to come by, the Japanese factory playing their cards close to their chest. But given the ongoing talks with teams about managing an effort in 2014, and the likelihood of Randy de Puniet signing up with Suzuki as test rider in the next few weeks, it seems almost inevitable.

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.