MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

The rumors of former Suzuki boss Ken Kawauchi moving to Honda raised many eyebrows in the MotoGP paddock. Engineers switching factories may be commonplace for European manufacturers, but it is almost unheard of, and unthinkable for Japanese factories. As Japan's leading MotoGP journalist, Akira Nishimura his his insight into what the news that Kawauchi is moving to HRC for the 2023 season means.

Ken Kawauchi, Suzuki's long-time technical boss, will become HRC's new technical manager for the 2023 season following the Hamamatsu company's withdrawal from MotoGP. Below is my brief insight into this bombshell news.

It was January 10 when I first heard about Kawauchi-san’ joining HRC. I was chatting with a fellow European journalist by text when the subject came up. I understood it was likely to happen, because I remembered a casual exchange with Kawauchi-san during our season review interview last December.

After the interview, I stopped the recorder, and we left the interview room. Then, I joked to him, “why don’t you move to, say, KTM, after your company’s withdrawal from MotoGP? I believe they will hire you with a very high salary.”

What have we learned from the first two days of the MotoGP shakedown test at Sepang so far? Well, the first thing we have learned is that it can still rain quite a lot in the tropics. The test riders and GasGas rookie Augusto Fernandez have not had a great deal of dry track time over the past couple of days.

Combine a damp track with the fact that it is test riders out there – Cal Crutchlow for Yamaha; Michele Pirro for Ducati; Lorenzo Savadori for Aprilia; Stefan Bradl for Honda; and Dani Pedrosa, Mika Kallio, and new signing Jonas Folger for KTM – alongside GasGas rookie Fernandez, and it means the times don't mean much. Fernandez gets extra track time by dint of being a rookie, compensation for the reduction of official testing time which has taken place over the last five years or so.

The MotoGP test riders finally got a pretty much fully dry day of running on the final day of the shakedown test at Sepang. Michele Pirro, Cal Crutchlow, Katsuyuki Nakasuga, Lorenzo Savadori, Jonas Folger, Dani Pedrosa, Stefan Bradl, and GasGas rookie Augusto Fernandez managed to get some real work done. How much more? Fernandez did 47 full laps on Tuesday, where he had managed only 34 and 26 on the two days previous.

What did we learn? Not much more than we already knew from the previous two days. The more subtle changes will only be obvious once journalists and photographers can get into pit lane and take a proper close up look at the bikes. If you are interested in seeing the times, check Peter McLaren's report from day 3 over on Crash.net.

There were still one or two interesting points to note, however. KTM rolled out another aerodynamics update, though it is not yet the full package. This included a version of the fat lower ground effect side section which the Austrian factory tried at Valencia, following the lead of Aprilia earlier in the year.

The Sepang test is a very big deal. Factories, teams and riders pour an inconceivable amount of time and energy preparing for the first test of the year. And yet, by Valencia, it will be a footnote. Everyone will have forgotten about what happened here. Who am I kidding, by Le Mans it will be ancient history.

That doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter. Sepang is where the manufacturers lay the groundwork for the year, it is the foundation they build their season on. Any cracks or crannies, any hidden faults or failures, and their title chances list and founder, doomed from the beginning.

Last year, it was at Sepang that Yamaha discovered that their new faster engine would not stay in one piece for long enough to manage a whole season with just seven engines. And Sepang was where Ducati found themselves so overloaded with work and new ideas that they lost their way, and didn't really find their feet again until the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez, the sixth round of the season.

What matters at Sepang is the work done, though, rather than the names at the top of the timesheet. MotoGP has tested at Sepang 16 times over the past 11 years, and in only three of those years did the rider who was fastest at Sepang go on to be champion: Casey Stoner in 2011, and Marc Marquez in 2014 and 2016.

Reading tealeaves

After the first morning of running, and having spent a couple of hours walking up and down pit lane, here are the first things I spotted on the 2023 bikes.

But perhaps I should start with the riders. The testing rule of thumb is that factory riders who stayed with the same factory got to go out on the 2022 bike first, while the new arrivals were handed the new bikes straight off the bat.

Though it seems odd, it makes sense once you see the logic of it: experience riders need to be reminded of how the old bikes felt before starting to test new parts, so they can tell whether something is an improvement or not. The new riders have no frame of reference, and so nothing to compare new parts with. Might as well focus on getting them up to speed straight away.

So it was that Jack Miller and Joan Mir were sent out on black carbon-fiber stealthed prototypes, while Marc Marquez and Brad Binder took their old bikes out for a spin first. Fabio Quartararo followed suit, as did Pecco Bagnaia, Aleix Espargaro, and Maverick Viñales.

Here’s a quick rundown of what everyone has been testing, both from what they told us after the day had finished and from what I saw down in pit lane.

Honda

Wet weather is bad news for everybody when testing is so severely restricted. Well, not quite everybody. For those who have a bike which already has a year’s worth of setup data to support it, there is an upside. With practice reduced to make room for the sprint race on Saturday, there is little time to work on setup, so any rider who has a strong base setup is at an advantage. They have a starting point to work from, whatever happens during practice.

That is very much not the case for factory teams who have brought a lot of parts to test and who are looking for a direction. A damp morning and heavy rain in the afternoon scuppered plans for Honda, and made life harder at KTM. Things planned for today have been moved to tomorrow, and low priority items scrapped from the list.

One thing that affects everybody is the race simulation. Many riders were scheduled to do not one but two race simulations: a sprint race simulation on Saturday, followed by a full race simulation on Sunday. But losing the best part of 5 hours of practice to the conditions means they are going to have to choose.

Three days and 60% into MotoGP preseason testing, and what have we learned? I will be taking a much longer look at the test in a series of articles over the coming days, but here are a few quick thoughts at the end of a very long weekend.

The top of the timesheets is a relatively good reflection of the coming Sprint race era of MotoGP: seven Ducatis in the top ten, plus two Aprilias, the first non-Italian bike Marc Marquez in tenth. But the timesheets don't tell the whole story. Occasional rain and damp track conditions disrupted testing sufficiently to force teams to upend their test programs. Some riders dropped plans for race simulations, others dropped plans for fast laps.

On the other hand, the timesheets do give a sense of the relative strengths of the factories, and where they are. So here's a rapid rundown of where each factory stands after three days at Sepang.

Ducati

The thing that should worry any riders with ideas of challenging for the 2023 MotoGP crown is that the 2022 champion is looking eminently relaxed at Sepang. Ducati's approach to the winter tests is the polar opposite of 2022. Last year, they were throwing parts at the riders all the way through practice for the first race, leaving them bewildered, confused, and frustrated, and leaving them struggling for the first five races before they wrapped their heads around that year's bike.

It would have been at Estoril, in 2011. Casey Stoner had left Ducati at the end of the previous year and joined Honda, and was immediately fast. During a press debrief, technical journalist Neil Spalding asked Stoner a simple question.

"Long and low, or short and high?"

Stoner did not hesitate.

"Short and high."

I was reminded of this brief exchange at the Sepang MotoGP test. In the context of 2011, Stoner's answer made perfect sense. After spending four seasons wrestling with the long and low Ducati, the bike getting less competitive every year, it was a revelation for Stoner to get on the RC212V, the 800cc Honda. He could now brake, load the front as much as he wanted, pitch the bike into the turn and then fire it out again. No more battling with the front end of the Ducati.

Why was short and high better? Because it allowed for better weight transfer under braking, allowing riders to load the front tire before entering the corner. As the riders braked, the forks would bury the front wheel into the tarmac, the rear wheel lifting, putting the entire weight of the bike onto the front tire.

Especially beneficial in the Bridgestone era, with a solid front tire that would give unlimited grip as long as you loaded it sufficiently.

Having a strong second rider has become increasingly important in motorcycle racing. In WorldSBK Ducati has World Champion Alvaro Bautista as their team leader but Steve English asks who will be the next man up for the Bologna firm?

It’s been almost 20 years since Ducati claimed back-to-back WorldSBK titles, but with an updated Panigale V4R that has left Alvaro Bautista purring at both the Jerez and Portimão tests the Spaniard looks very well placed to do just that in 2023.

“The new bike has a more linear power delivery,” explained Bautista after his first sampling of the 2023 wares. “I feel comfortable and it has a lot of potential because the lap time came easily. I am faster mid corner with this bike but I still need to improve on corner exit to accelerate better. Overall, I’m very happy with the winter and I’m looking forward to Phillip Island. I’ve enjoyed riding the bike in Jerez and Portimão and my only target for Australia is to enjoy it.”

With Bautista locked in for a strong title defence one of the most interesting subplots of the coming season becomes what happens for the other Ducati riders as they scrap it out for a factory ride next year.

Prodigal Petrucci

Change is in the air at Yamaha. In a year’s time Toprak Razgatlioglu could be a MotoGP rider, and if that happens who will fill his boots? Steve English compares the form of Yamaha’s rookies and explains why Andrea Locatelli is still well placed to remain

It was always going to be difficult for Yamaha to follow up the title winning successes of 2021 with a similar showing last year. Toprak Razgatlioglu was arguably the best rider in the world during that title-winning season, and while last year he was still at his brilliant best, the Turkish star admitted that he took his eye off the ball in the early rounds.

It wasn’t until Round 4, eleven races into the campaign, that Toprak came alive and finally won a race. From that point onwards he actually outscored the eventual champion, Alvaro Bautista, but the damage was already done. For Yamaha the 2023 campaign will see upgrades to the R1 but a swingarm having been the most obvious upgrade.

“The new parts are to help find an improvement in acceleration,” explained Toprak. “We spent time testing the new swingarm and it gave good grip. I rode the old swingarm again for comparison and now I know that it gives us more grip. I'm going into the season more focused than I did last year. I fought hard in the last few races last year, but it wasn't like that, especially at the start of the season. I know that Johnny and Alvaro will be strong but we have to win the championship again.”