Testing, testing…

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Sophomore year Ducati MotoGP racer Enea Bastianini recorded the fastest-ever lap around the Malaysian circuit. (MotoGP/)

With the departures of several veteran MotoGP riders at the end of last season, Ducati’s Jack Miller now has the status of old hand. At the Sepang preseason test, he cautioned us to understand that factory riders must focus on dialing in new equipment (his Ducati has an all-new engine that must be smoothly mated to Dorna’s spec electronics) while the riders on last year’s bike (which won seven races in 2021) can use its already refined setup to go fast from the start.

Ducati had a new “automatic” variable ride height (VRH) system on the front, while Suzuki is in catch-up mode with its rear system, but most interesting have been the rider concerns over interactions between new aero packages and handling. VRH began as a way to lower the front just for the start, as commonly done in motocross; now it is evolving into a system that can raise and lower the CG of bike and rider—low for stronger acceleration and (sometimes) braking, but shifting to high for cornering clearance. Álex Rins (Suzuki, fourth quickest here) noted that the aero is “…better on the brakes, but not on exit of the corners.”

Because wings are dynamic devices, the downforce they produce increases with speed, so naturally braking from high speed will produce a stronger effect than at lower corner-exit speeds.

Consistency and Challenges

Suzuki’s recent strength has been in consistency, with Joan Mir taking the championship in 2020. This perception of consistency has caused others to rate Suzuki as most ready for the season to begin.

Yet there are always problems, as Rins noted: “We need to improve in the first part of exiting from slow corners in low gears, where we have our tire in the air and the others are able to [keep it steering].”

Miguel Oliveira (KTM) commented that originally, downforce was applied to keep the front end from lifting during acceleration, “…but now we find that you can even stop faster…it’s now a key ingredient for the base.”

No one dares field variable-incidence wings—that was banned years ago in “the senior service” (Formula 1). But that is exactly what MotoGP needs. There is already a trade-off between downforce and top speed: The more downforce you create, the more power the wings consume, lowering top speed. And Rins’ observation that downforce works better on the brakes than on corner exit cries out for increased wing incidence at lower speeds. And in midcorner and full lean angle, wings work harder to push the bike outward, off-line, than they do to produce downforce; the higher the speed, the more pronounced the effect.

The purpose of a test such as Sepang is not to see which riders and bikes are the fastest at the moment, but to begin exploiting the changes made to the bikes in the offseason, and to start understanding where the gains are.

“You have so much more to do in the factory seat,” Miller said. “You don’t get to throw tires at it and have all that fun (as in) the satellite teams, and break records.” (Miller was 14th fastest.)

This was a not-so-subtle reference to Enea Bastianini (Gresini satellite team) who on Sunday (the second day of the test) set a new track record at 1:58.131—on a 2021 Ducati.

Asked if last year’s bike is better at the moment, Miller said, “Yeah, I think so. We know that bike very well.

“But I think the potential with the new bike is greater.”

He added, “It’s a next evolution of the bike.

“If you look through the previous years, from…GP17 up to now, it was just slight tweaks every year.”

Aprilia made arguably the biggest step in terms of performance, with Maverick Viñales finishing fifth while his teammate Aleix Espargaró ended the test as. (MotoGP/)

Revolution vs. Evolution

Don’t be surprised by this conservatism. Building something revolutionary would require a level of knowledge that doesn’t exist, so no designer has overturned the conventional. There are no 1980s-style forkless front ends or Chebyshev swingarms in MotoGP.

Just slight tweaks? As Miller noted, “There are a few little things that have changed. They are all multiplied to work together…”

Many years ago, veteran racing engineer Erv Kanemoto noted, “The thing we most feared each year was that they [the factory team you were working for] would come with a new chassis. Because that would take you six months to get working as good as what you had.”

Getting a new bike dialed is work, pushing through the items on the test list, trying to find the best settings. Test sequencing seeks to save time by making basic decisions early so that testing can move efficiently from the basic to the particular. Francesco Bagnaia, who won four of last season’s last six races, made it sound positively ho-hum: “The bike is new so I tried a new fairing, which was OK. I tried the new engine and that was OK.

“…in the last part of the day we did a step [forward].”

His reward Saturday was to be 19th.

“…for sure tomorrow we will have another step in front.” (On Sunday he moved up to sixth.)

“The DNA of our bike is to be very good on braking and in [corner] entry, and the level is already like the past one [the 2021 D16].

“We are working more on the acceleration, because when you put the same [spec] electronics on a different engine, for sure you have to adjust everything.

“The biggest step today [Sunday] was the acceleration.”

“With last year’s bike you were feeling that you were very fast but it was already at the maximum of its level. This one gives you a great feeling because you feel that you can improve [it] a lot.”

Specific problems with the new bike? Mooney VR46 Ducati rider Luca Marini (11th) said, “I struggled a lot with the rear grip, and I know that Pecco [Bagnaia] and Jack [Miller] also struggled a lot with the rear grip.

“But I don’t think Ducati changed anything that could cause this problem,” implying that the likely solution will be found in further testing.

This lack of rear grip was much-talked-about at the end of last year. It may result—at least in part—from the rear tire cooling off on straights, resulting in reduced initial grip. Riders were seeking setups that allowed some rear-brake use (less weight on the front, or less weight transfer during braking), possibly to put some temperature into the rear.

Reigning world champion Fabio Quartararo and Yamaha test rider Cal Crutchlow searched for top speed aboard their YZR-M1s, which proved to be underwhelming. (MotoGP/)

More Power! More Speed!

Last year’s world champion, Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo (seventh), had hoped aloud for more power, but that has never been Yamaha’s way. Quartararo seems disappointed, saying only that he would once again have to adapt his riding to the lack of top speed.

“To be honest I expected much more from this test.” Saying he was a bit out of practice on the first day. By the second day he noted that “straight away from the first lap I was riding more naturally.” The team had reserved two tires for a late-Sunday best-time run, but rain came.

Quartararo noted that Ducati was already super fast, but that Aprilia, Honda, and Suzuki have also strongly advanced. He accumulated crucial points early last season, but Ducati was dominant in the second half.

In recent times Quartararo has been Yamaha’s most powerful “technology,” the only rider to put the Yamaha up front. Yet Yamaha engineers must have made changes they expect to raise performance. Can Mr. Q translate them into lap times? Andrea Dovizioso, in his role as Yamaha factory tester, has said that only by riding the Yamaha Quartararo’s way can it succeed, and he (Dovi) finds himself unable to do that. We want to know more!

Aprilia Impresses

Most impressive on the first day were the new Aprilias, of which Aleix Espargaró (second quickest over the two days) said, “It’s better! The bike is definitely better. Whether it’s enough or not…we will see during the races.

“The best thing is the turning. The bike is more narrow…”

“The bike is not a revolution, it’s a continuation of the RS-GP21, but more narrow and more agile.

“What we have to improve is still chattering…Here in Malaysia in 2020 I remember having chattering…something we need to improve.”

“The engine is a little bit stronger than last year but not enough.”

Aprilia team manager Romano Albesiano likened the new bike to “moving a building two meters. It’s not a big change, but you have to move everything.”

Aprilia is the only constructor still enjoying “technical concessions.” Despite scoring a first podium last year it is permitted to make engine modifications during the season, and is allowed two additional engine changes per rider. Such concessions are granted to not-yet-successful teams, helping them catch up during the season, and because an engine still in active development is less reliable than a proven design.

Espargaró said, “The strongest thing about the bike is the turning.” That may result from the flexibility of what is described as this year’s thinner frame. Aprilia may have found something new and valuable, or it may just have discovered an old contradiction: Reduce chassis stiffness enough in pursuing corner grip and you create chatter—or worse—instability.

So far, the new chassis works. Espargaró said, “You can carry as much speed as you want. It’s unbelievable how much the bike turns, but I’m limited by the chattering. Even in our fast laps Maverick [Viñales—who was fifth quickest over the weekend] and myself have to close the throttle a bit and enter the corner slower to avoid the vibration, but not because I will go wide.”

Will the Aprilia next appear with a tuned-mass damper in its seatback, to stop the chatter?

All eyes were on Marc Márquez, who returned to the MotoGP paddock following a training incident that caused a period of double vision for the eight-time world champion. (MotoGP/)

The Apex-Speed Issue

This new ability to hold line at high speed in turns creates a fresh problem—racing against other bikes having lower apex speeds—machines that “stop” in midcorner, then recover exit speed with their superior acceleration.

“When you follow a Ducati you cannot do this style [high corner speed],” Espargaró said. “Even behind a Honda or KTM [the other high-power bikes] you cannot. They stop you in the middle of the corner because their bikes [cannot turn] like us, and then they use the extra power they have…”

This classic situation isn’t new. The corner speed of Honda’s two-stroke 500 V-twin in 1997 was outstanding, but unless the bike could get away at the start, machines having lower apex speed but stronger acceleration would balk it in the in turns.

Marc Márquez was present at the test (eighth overall, 0.201 second off Bastianini’s new record). but mainly said he was pleased that the new bike has speed.

“Immediately I understood that the lap is easier to get with the new bike.”

Central to the changes has been work to improve rear grip (typically on corner entry), and this has changed the response at the front: “…front feeling, that has changed a lot,” he said.

He lost the front in a minor tip-over at T15. As so often during recovery from his injury and subsequent operations, he is not at full physical condition, but so far there has been no recurrence of diplopia—the double vision that appeared after his MX crash. To be as close to the front as this despite the mysteries of a new bike and less-than-top physical condition is a good sign.

KTM Dials it Back

KTM, after impressing everyone with their progress, decided last June that a new design being readied for testing was “philosophically wrong.” Instead, they will run the 2021 bike with small changes. Rider Oliveira (15th) said, “…the main thing that we are looking for to improve is the setup. We believe there is still a lot of room to find speed and consistency…with the current package…”

None of the above information has predictive power, but the rider comments do give us a basis for future understanding as the 2022 season develops.

Testing resumes next Friday at Mandalika Circuit, Indonesia, revealing more about how quickly the teams can turn the changes their engineers have made into quicker lap times.

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