Neil Morrison | November 25, 2024
Just two days on from the finale of the 2024 season, and MotoGP promotion was insisting 2025 had already begun, as the first preseason test took place over a cool, sunny day in Barcelona.
New MotoGP Champion Jorge Martin made his Aprilia debut at the Barcelona test.
Photos by Gold & Goose
Energy levels may have been universally low after a punishing conclusion to the year that saw seven races held over nine weeks. Yet newly crowned World champ Jorge Martin’s hotly anticipated switch to Aprilia, Marc Marquez’s promotion to the factory Ducati team, as well as the first sightings of three promising rookies meant there was plenty to pick through.
Final times made for interesting reading. After a season struggling on year-old machinery, Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati) excelled on his first contact with Ducati’s GP24, while Fabio Quartararo ensured Yamaha ended the year on a high with the second fastest time, three-tenths of a second back.
And there was enough in the performances of Francesco Bagnaia (third) and Marc Marquez (fourth) to suggest Ducati is already on its way to improving what was supposed to be the perfect bike with the early incarnation of the Desmosedici GP25.
Marc Marquez found a good pace on the factory Ducati.
Yet the biggest story of the day centered around the recently crowned champ. Decked out in all black like new teammate Marco Bezzecchi, Martin had one RS-GP ’24 and a RS-GP ’25 to try. His first run was shaky, the bike loose and twitchy beneath him. Yet come the afternoon, he was dragging his shoulder on the curb at turn five—hardly a sign of a rider lacking confidence. His day ended in a respectable 11th, 1.05 seconds back of Alex Marquez’s best.
Neither Martin nor Bezzecchi (13th) were allowed to speak to the media at the close of the day. But new Technical Director Fabiano Sterlacchini was instantly impressed by the factory’s new signing. “In this short time, we’ve worked together, he’s a mixture of a champion and a leader. To be honest, it’s quite astonishing the way he’s approaching the job. It’s really good.”
After a season of near unparalleled success, Ducati could be forgiven for resting on its laurels. But both Bagnaia and Marquez had the first version of the GP25 to try. “The feeling was super good, especially with the team,” said Marquez, decked out in a special all-red color scheme for the day. “The engine’s a bit better on the straight. Then it looks like the character of going in on the corner is a bit different.”
Bagnaia, who had required a six-mile walk on the Monday before the test to digest the fact he lost the number-one plate, was similarly impressed. “In terms of handling, the GP24 is still better in braking. But the GP25 has very good stability in fast corners, and I like it with used tires. Also, the new engine is very strong.” They were ominous words that suggest the pick of the grid won’t be standing still over the coming months.
Yamaha had a promising test. Fabio Quartararo was second quickest.
The surprise of the day was Quartararo’s second fastest time. The Frenchman tried a new engine, chassis, fairing and swingarm. “We improved a little bit with the new chassis in some areas, but on traction, we didn’t,” he said. “The area where we go from straight to full lean angle, we go a bit quicker.” Yet there was a boost from seeing his name at the top of the standings. “It’s only test, but I forgot [what that’s like],” he quipped. “Normally [I see my name] when we turn the page [upside down].”
Yamaha had the rare joy of calling upon the feedback of four riders, rather than two, as Miguel Oliveira and Jack Miller made their debut appearances for Pramac Yamaha. “It was a bike that straightaway is very rider friendly,” said the Portuguese rider. “It gives you good feedback to tell you where the wheels are, and that’s super important.”
Jack Miller made his debut appearance on the Pramac Yamaha.
New factory KTM rider Pedro Acosta (ninth) tested a whopping five new fairings, while teammate Brad Binder (sixth) focused on improvements to the RC16’s electronics. “I tried a few different things, a little bit of wheelie control, a little bit of TC stuff. We tried some small aero parts, some different things just to gain some information with some stiffnesses and stuff. It was pretty cool,” said the South African. And Acosta immediately felt a change in his factory surroundings, and insisted he was going to the winter break calm. “Happy. And at peace,” he said. “It was a hard year, and coming ‘back home,’ back with the people that KTM have from the beginning of the project, and not having a problem the whole day in stupid things was super nice.”
The Austrian factory will also be heartened by the performance of new Tech3 rider Maverick Vinales in 12th. In addition to the RC16’s top speed, he was impressed by the bike’s grunt when exiting the turn. “The earlier you pick up, the earlier you go. This is fantastic for my riding style because I pick up the bike very early. And you always have power pushing you out.”
The only factory with a negative air was Honda. Joan Mir (15th) was quietly simmering at the lack of updates available to try. “The reality is that I didn’t have a lot of things to test; I had already tested everything before. You expect more from a test as important as this one. How can I not be angry? There are times allotted for things to arrive, but here they haven’t.”
Honda’s Joan Mir wasn’t impressed on a bike that lacked updated technology.
It wasn’t all bad for Honda, however. Teammate Luca Marini (18th) was more optimistic after having a good deal more to try than the Majorcan, including a new prototype that will be the base for HRC moving into 2025. “Obviously, it’s still not as fast as the standard bike that we had during the weekend, but there is something positive we found.”
“It’s a huge change, the frame. On the front part, maybe there is something good, something positive. On the rear part, still, we need to improve. But there are quite more settings that we had to try. They made a huge change to understand the direction for the future. Some things are good and maybe some things are not.”
New HRC test rider Aleix Espargaro was 14th and just four-tenths off fastest Honda rider Johann Zarco and was reportedly not slow to tell HRC engineers of the RC213V’s shortcomings.
Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini Ducati) was the fastest of the rookies in 20th, a place ahead of Ai Ogura (Trackhouse Aprilia) and three ahead of Somkiat Chantra (LCR Honda).
Fermin Aldeguer was the fastest of the MotoGP rookies.
A selection of riders sampled another version of a new Michelin front tire that will be introduced in 2026. The construction is more robust to make it more adept at dealing with the high loads placed on it by MotoGP machines’ aerodynamics setups. Asked whether he’d like to see the tire introduced a year early, Marini was unequivocal. “Yes. It’s ready.”CN
TOP 10
- Alex Marquez (Duc) 1’38.803
- Fabio Quartararo (Yam) +0.396
- Francesco Bagnaia (Duc) +0.595
- Marc Marquez (Duc) +0.651
- Raul Fernandez (Apr) +0.668
- Brad Binder (KTM) +0.705
- Franco Morbidelli (Duc) +0.762
- Alex Rins (Yam) +0.765
- Pedro Acosta (Duc) +0.768
- Johann Zarco (Hon) +0.813
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